The Mind and Heart Connection
“I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.”
Psalms 119:16 NASB
Introduction
I’ve been camped out in Psalm 119 for the past couple weeks as I read before bed. It’s one of my favorite Psalms. Ive been learning about the use of the God’s Law in the life of New Testament Christians, through a series by Dr. Greg Bahnsen, linked here with a free account sign up. This verse specifically stuck out as I was reading as a great picture of how our hearts are not disconnected from our minds.
God’s Law Reveals God Himself
The first line uses the word delight. I love this word. It’s so vivid to me of someone struggling to contain their emotions. I picture the face of someone thinking everyone forgot their birthday, only to walk in, flip on the light, and be greeted by a “Surprise!” from all of their friends and family. We receive joy from God. It is a distinct mark of Christians. It is worth pointing out here that the text doesn’t say “I shall delight in You.” It explicitly says “I shall delight in Your statutes.” This is as good a place as any to address that we have a very limited and unbiblical view of God’s Law. To simplify an infinite topic, God’s Law reveals God’s character to us. The entire psalm is an acrostic about God’s Law. 171 of the 176 verses in this psalm speak of the goodness of God’s Law. In Romans 7:12 Paul verifies this as clearly as possible saying “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Jesus Himself says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). The point of the Law was always to show the faith and heart of mankind.
The final point here about the Law, God, His statutes and word, before returning, is that the Law has always been about faith. God “changeth not” (Malachi 3:6). Abraham believed and it was credited as righteousness even before Moses received the Law. This is summarized in Romans 9:30-33 “What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Faith in Jesus, or the coming Messiah, foretold in the Old Testament was the whole purpose of the Law, and that is a glorious thing. Ok, back to our topic.
Delightful Remembrance
Having a mind that is full of Godly things, but a heart that is full of sin is no better than having neither of the two. Likewise, having a heart with that appears to have good intentions, while denying to know the God who defines what is good is useless. In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus says that the Law “depends” on loving God with all our “heart” and “mind.” This is an astounding statement. Many people say they only want Jesus without doctrine or study of the Bible. A commonly used metaphor for this is like saying “I love my spouse but want to know zero things about them other than what I’d like them to be.” This may make you feel good about the idea of your spouse, but you don’t know your spouse. We need to love God with all of our heart and mind. They are not separate pursuits. They are one pursuit, divinely intertwined and moving together “further up and further in” as CS Lewis puts it in The Last Battle. We delight in God (and his Law) and we do not forget his word (Him). There’s a lot that could be said about what “word” means here in this verse, but I want to draw attention to the “not forgetting” part of it.
Memory is in the mind. Delight is a heart activity. I will delight and not forget is a commitment to loving God with all of our heart and mind. The picture chosen above is showing how we, in a sense, ignite our lives with love for God through the connection of our heart and mind. I believe it was Martin Lloyd-Jones who said that “preaching is theology on fire.” Likewise, our Christian service is a life that is on fire in both our minds and our hearts. Francis Schaeffer said “When we understand our calling, it is not only true, but beautiful—and it should be exciting. It is hard to understand how an orthodox, evangelical, Bible-believing Christian can fail to be excited. The answers in the realm of the intellect should make us overwhelmingly excited. But more than this, we are returned to a personal relationship with a God who is there. If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong.” This excitement is a delight in God as we remember daily who He is. I pray that my life has both of these things as a living sacrifice to God.