Their heart is as fat as grease;
But I delight in thy law (Psa 119.70).
Sincerity is not everything, but everything else without sincerity is nothing. Sincere adherents to false religions are abominable to God, and their earnestness in opposition to Him and His truth only increases their guilt. Conversely, one may say and do all the right things externally—profess Christ, be baptized, adhere strongly to the most orthodox confession of faith, serve as a church officer and volunteer for scads of worthy causes—and yet fail of God’s approval.
The heart of the matter is that the heart matters. Jesus reproved the Pharisees because they “made clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within were full of extortion and excess,” and He counseled them to “cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” They were like whitewashed tombs, “beautiful outwardly but within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness” (Matt 23.25-27).
Where there is outward adherence to biblical faith, that is, revealed religion (for apart from this there is no spiritual credibility), the state of one’s heart is what distinguishes the beloved children of God from mere hypocrites. A great chasm separates their experiences which are bridged only by the supernatural grace of regeneration, or being born again by the Holy Spirit. He alone can effect the change of heart God requires for acceptable service, and He does it alone (“monergism” as opposed to “synergism”), for His subjects are found to be spiritually dead, incapable of cooperating with Him in any way. Faith and repentance are the fruits of regeneration, not vice versa. We believe because we are born of the Spirit. We turn from sin to Christ because we are spiritually alive by His prior sovereign operations within us (cf. John 1.12-13; Jas 1.18).
In our text, the psalmist describes proud hearts, and then his own heart, radically changed by God’s grace to His glory. This topic is so very important that it deserves top priority among our concerns coupled with sober self-examination and earnest pleas to God that we might have clear evidences of His saving grace in our changed hearts.
THE PROUD HEART
By the possessive pronoun “their,” the psalmist is referring to “the proud” of the previous verse, who had “forged a lie” against him. He speaks of their “heart,” “the richest biblical term for the totality of man’s inner or immaterial nature.”1 Its sense is broader than the corresponding English word; it can include the ideas of “mind, soul, spirit, i.e., the source of life of the inner person in various aspects, with a focus on feelings, thoughts, volition, and other areas of the inner life.”2 It almost always takes this figurative sense in Scripture rather than referring to the heart as a physical organ.
I believe their interpretation is correct who interpret the saying, “their heart is fat as grease,” to refer to spiritual insensitivity (e.g., JFB, Matthew Henry, John MacArthur, etc.). The Hebrew could be rendered, “their heart is insensitive like fat.”3 The NIV paraphrases, “their hearts are callous and unfeeling.”
The fat of the human body, as physiologists inform us, is absolutely insensible; the lean membranous parts being those only which are sensitive. Accordingly, fatness of heart is used, with much propriety, to express the insensibility, stupidity, or sensuality of those feelings or affections of which the heart is considered the seat.4
In my view, those who interpret the metaphor as worldly luxury and abundance miss the mark.
Besides, spiritual insensitivity fits the context perfectly. These slanderers were flaunting God’s law and they didn’t care in the slightest. “Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness” (Exod 23.1). “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the LORD” (Lev 19.16). They were trampling wantonly these moral boundaries so clearly set forth as the revealed will of God Almighty.
Another evidence of spiritual insensitivity as the true sense is that in the contrast of the second line, the psalmist highlights his own delight in God’s law, taking spiritual sensitivity to a higher level than mere compliance.
This connotation is also clearly justified in Isa 6.10, “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Gross spiritual insensitivity is a universal trait of the unconverted, a mark of the damned, and in the case of those who have professed faith, of total apostasy. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4.1-2).
It is inevitable that the proud heart would be the spiritually-insensitive heart, because 1) God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4.6), so that the proud heart is not naturally in a frame to receive grace from God, 2) the proud esteems his own folly more than God’s wisdom, and so is loathe to change his mind about anything (cf. Jer 13.9-10), and 3) the proud cannot stand to be reproved by anyone else, since he despises others and considers himself above them, even if they are divinely-sent prophets with the Word of the Lord in their mouths. This prompts the slander so characteristic of the proud.
If we know our hearts, we know that they are prone to pride because pride is natural. Humility is supernatural.5
There is nothing into which the heart of man so easily falls as pride, and yet there is no vice which is more frequently, and emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture.6
Here we have a mirror by which we can detect pride, that invisible and insidious enemy in our hearts: spiritual insensitivity. Many who would perhaps admit that Bible reading is dull to them, that hearing sermons makes next to no impression on them, and that they have never really experienced deep broken-heartedness on account of their sin, or kept any serious resolutions to change just because the Scripture requires it, are far from realizing that this heart malaise is due to nothing else but wicked pride and self-idolatry. People who are fundamentally insensitive to God’s Word are unconverted, and Christians in name only, if at all.
That is also why we who are faithful preachers must be alarmed by unresponsive hearers of divine truth, and we must be praying for a supernatural work of regeneration in them through the Word.
THE PIOUS HEART
The alternative to an insensitive heart, the actual spiritual condition and experience of the saved is a heart that relishes and obeys God’s Word. “But I delight in thy law,” the psalmist said of himself. Of course he was not guilty of pride by saying this; rather, he was acknowledging God’s grace at work in his life. It had made a radical difference in him, turning him from wretched pride to genuine piety, and from this renewed heart flowed the blessed differences of godly conduct.
To delight means “to have a feeling or attitude of taking pleasure in and having fondness for an object,”7 and here the psalmist testifies that this was the nature of his relationship with God’s Word written (cf. Psa 119.16, 47, same Hebrew word). A little later he did burst out, “O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psa 119.97).
We must not think that we will ever truly obey God’s Word from the heart while we inwardly despise it. Sinners count God’s commandments to be a grievous burden (1 John 5.3), not to be lifted with one of their fingers (Matt 23.4). Believers, on the other hand, know that His law “is perfect, converting the soul; His statutes are right, rejoicing the heart. . . . More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much find gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward” (Psa 19.7-11).
Those who love Scripture are not mere bibliophiles, but lovers of the God who gave it. The passionate fiancé hungrily pores over the latest letter from his future bride because of love to her person, not an affinity for things literary. Likewise, your love for God is no greater than your love for the Bible which alone is His Word.
But even real Christians suffer from remaining pride and a degree of cooling in our love, and the consequences are backsliding and encroaching worldliness. Thus whenever we have sinned, whether in speaking evil of others or any other violation of His perfect law, we must not aim for mere behavior modification. The cure for adultery and murder was an answer to this earnest prayer request, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psa 51.10). Only a deeply pious heart will be able to recover from immorality and give sincere, joyful obedience to the Lord. That gets to the heart of the matter, the real difference between the saved and the lost.
The Lord guide us to an accurate knowledge of ourselves and grant us sensitive souls leading to visible saintliness of conduct. Amen.
Notes:
1. TWOT #1071a.
2. DBLSD #4213.
3. NET Bible notes, in loc.
4. Marginal note of Calvin’s commentary, in loc.
5. Wayne Mack, “Humility: The Forgotten Virtue,” p. 98.
6. Charles Spurgeon, MTP #97.
7. DBLSD #9130.
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