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NOT A HEART AS FAT AS GREASE
THURSDAY, JUNE 24
Psalm 119:65-72

Proverbs 27:7

 

“Their heart is as fat

as grease…”

 

NOT A HEART AS FAT AS GREASE
 
The psalmist describes a contrast between himself and his enemies, “the proud” who have “forged a lie” against him (Ps 119:69). Their heart, he  says, is “as fat as grease” (v 70) ‒ the phrase describes something that is thick or calloused, so that nothing can penetrate. In this case the contrast makes it clear that what is being described is the insensitivity of the wicked to the law and the precepts of God: thus the psalmist says of himself by contrast: “I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart… I delight in thy law” (vv 69-70).
 
We need to realise that God’s law is given not for our intellectual assent, but for our willing obedience. But there are those who refuse to accept God’s law as a rule of life, and display a deliberate disregard of His precepts ‒ indeed, that is the natural condition of humanity since the fall.
 
How then did the psalmist come to think differently of God’s law? What was it that softened his heart? Interestingly, what he mentions here as the turning point for him is his affliction. “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (v 67). Indeed, he counts it a good thing: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (v 71). It is because of his affliction, which was at the hand of God, that he is able to say, “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (v 72).
 
Dear reader, sometimes the Lord uses affliction to soften our hearts, and make us receptive to His Word. “The full soul loatheth a honeycomb” (Prov 27:7) and so those who are full of the luxuries of this life often find the sweet truths of Scripture distasteful; “but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,” and so those who are deprived of earthly pleasures may come to appreciate even the stern rebukes and warnings of Scripture. Let us then not complain if the Lord uses hard times to cause us to embrace His Word as “better… than thousands of gold and silver” ‒ because it actually is.
 
THOUGHT: Have life’s luxuries made my heart “fat as grease”? 
PRAYER: “Yet I have found ‘tis good for me to bear my Father’s rod; afflictions make me learn Thy law, and live upon my God.” (Watts)

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