I opened my mouth, and panted:
For I longed for thy commandments (Psa 119.131).
True religion (Jas 1.27 illustrates the positive use of the word “religion”) is first a matter of the heart, of longing and strong desire, with hunger and thirst serving as appropriate if inadequate metaphors, since the object of true religion is God, not the mere physical and temporal needs of the body.
The romantic and committed love associated with godly marriage is the nearest parallel this side of heaven to a believer’s delight in and desire for God, and God’s reciprocal love for his beloved one. Marital love at its highest includes physical desire, but it transcends this by far as the magnetic attraction of two compatible souls which revel in their fellowship and unity. This exalts the human relationship to the nearest likeness of the union and feelings of a saint with his Savior.
God himself ordained marriage from the beginning as an illustration of his redemptive plan for the elect through his Son Jesus Christ. From eternity the Father chose a bride for Christ, promising her to him in exchange for the sacrifice of himself, so that he wins her as the reward of his unspeakably great love. And the consummation of this covenant of redemption between the Father and Son, this covenant of grace between God and his chosen people, is attended with the bliss of covenantal love and faithfulness in both parties through eternity.
These striking parallels between marriage and the gospel message are no coincidence, but were designed by God from the beginning to teach us of heavenly things by their earthly counterparts. And a marriage without mutual desire and longing falls short of the biblical ideal and pattern established by God.
Feelings are important. Surely it would not, in general, be advisable for a young man and young woman to marry each other if their hearts were cold toward each other. While romantic ardor is not a sufficient basis to discern it is God’s will to marry, it would be doubtful the young couple should entertain the prospect of marriage without it.
Some professing Christians have become content with what could be described as an arranged marriage devoid of feeling in their relationship with the Lord. They conceive of salvation in cold and
clinical terms. It goes something like this. Step 1: You must admit that you are a sinner and you deserve to go to hell for your sins. Step 2: You must believe that Jesus died for your sins. Step 3: By prayer (and a form consisting of a couple dozen words is usually suggested), you must ask Jesus to be your personal Savior, and this done, you are assured that he is. Such are even counseled that faith, not feelings, is all that matters, and that feelings, which may come later, are strictly optional.
The famous (really, infamous) tract by Bill Bright, “Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?,” has perpetuated this mechanical approach with its illustration of three train cars labeled FACT (engine), followed by FAITH (freight car in the middle), and finally FEELING (caboose). Quoting, “The train will run with or without the caboose.” In other words, FEELING is an optional extra. I suspect this counsel arose from a wish to give “assurance” (I rather think, “presumption”) to sham converts without a shred of love to God.
This is like a couple simply wanting to be in a state of marriage without any special regard for each other as unique individual persons—that is, without love! Step 1: Admit you are single and that you are not happy remaining so. Step 2: Believe that this other person would agree to be married to you. Step 3: Ask her to marry you and hear her consent. Don’t bother about whether there is any desire for the other person, or whether the other person desires you; all this may or may not come later, but the important thing is that you are about to enter the married state. These miserable counselors say in effect, “Your relationship with God is like a loveless marriage? Don’t worry about it!”
Oh dear reader, this is all wrong! This is a cheap counterfeit of the true religion revealed in Holy Scripture, an utterly unsatisfying and dangerous substitute for the real thing! Our text for this study brings forth the central importance and reality of authentic spiritual desire in a living and healthy relationship with God.
STRENGTH OF DESIRE
The first line of the Psalm verse is figurative: “I opened my mouth, and panted.” The second is literal: “For I longed for thy commandments.”
Opening the mouth and panting (i.e., breathing hard) may be taken from the observation of wild animals in heat or in extreme thirst (e.g., the same Hebrew word is used in Jer 2.24; cf. Psa 42.1-2). The word is translated “earnestly desireth” in Job 7.2. It is used of an enemy who desires to “swallow up” the righteous (Psa 56.2-3; 57.4; Amos 8.4; Ezek 36.3).
One lexicon defines the meaning in this context as, “desire, long after, formally, pant, i.e., have a positive feeling or attitude toward an object to as to want to associate with or possess it, as a figurative extension of being so overheated, thirsty for water, or tired that one has quick shallow breaths and a dry mouth.”1
The psalmist’s point is that his desire is very strong and intense. It is no whim or passing interest. He does not simply like what he is about to mention. He likens himself to an animal in pursuit of its mate during that time of greatest fertility, or to a running deer that must have water to slake its thirst.
OBJECT OF DESIRE
In a form characteristic of Hebrew poetic parallelism, the second line restates the sense of the first with elaboration.
The restatement makes the metaphor for desire explicit and unmistakable by using the verb translated “longed,” appearing only here in the Hebrew Bible. This is a primitive root which all the lexicons recognize means “to long for, to desire.” As a verb in English, “long implies a wishing with one’s whole heart and often a striving to attain.”2 This confirms our interpretation of the first line as correct.
And what is it that so excites the deepest desires of this prophet David writing under the absolute control of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1.21)? It is “thy commandments,” of course, God’s Word referenced in nearly every verse of Psalm 119, the sacred Scriptures of which God himself is the Author.
This consideration that the very words of Scripture come from God vindicates the psalmist against any charge of an irrational Bible fetish. Some have ridiculed this kind of love for the heavenly message as “bibliolatry,” and with false piety these assert that they seek God beyond the page of mere words. For example, Jaroslav Pelikan writes, “the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church of 1962-1965 could speak with a mixture of genuine admiration and ever-so-gentle reproof about a ‘love and reverence, almost a cult, for Holy Scripture’ among the ‘separated Protestant brethren’.”3
And it is no wonder that apostate Christendom embodied in Romanism has such disdain for those who dearly love, reverence, and cherish most fondly the very words of God! She claims to have faith, but she lacks the feeling of true saints toward Scripture, exhibited in David’s unabashed personal testimony. This is his literary dance before the message contained in the ark of the covenant, for which he and all of kindred spirit now suffer shame before the impious (2 Sam 6.13-16). Saints love God’s Word because it is God’s word after all, the God whom we desire above all others (Psa 73.25-26).
Where there is genuine salvation, there is also “this bosom’s ardent feeling” which “vainly would our lips express.”4 True and saving faith in God is always married to a genuine longing for his Word. Yes, just like in a good marriage this love grows and matures, becoming more consistent, thoughtful, and committed. But if your supposed faith is cold and clinical, a matter of following a formula as insurance against eternal fire, completely without any feeling of desire for communion with the God of all grace—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and without any affectionate interest in Scripture, then you must surely conclude you have yet to believe in a saving way. Conversely, if you can honestly confess from your heart a sincere love of Scripture born of love for God who gave it, you have sufficient grounds for a full assurance of salvation, because no unrenewed sinner, still alienated from God, ever experienced feelings like that. The Lord grant us both the faith and feeling which are the fruit of his saving work in us. Amen.
Notes:
1. DBLSD #8634.
2. MWCD, in loc.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliolatry.
4. Hymn of Francis Scott Key, “Lord, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee.”