Joel M Bradshaw

11Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.–Psalm 86

Another great psalm by David. Good leaders are also good submitters. And David here wanted to be led by God. He proclaimed two things and then linked them to promise.

1. David first spoke in a way we would see more common in Jesus’ day. Advanced students would apply to a rabbi and ask them to teach their their yoke and to be able to follow as disciples. This makes Jesus calling his disciples stand out. He chose them! David wanted to know God’s path and then wanted to walk that path. Good perspective. A number of years ago I gave a teaching at Celebrate Recovery and I proclaimed that I had years of sobriety in a certain area. Later, a younger man came up to me and said almost exactly David’s words here. He wanted me to teach him what I did for he wanted what I had. Over the next couple of years, I discipled him and prayed with him. I don’t know if he really embraced the discipline regarding the issue, but we did become friends.
2. David next prayed that God would unite his heart and David would use that undivided heart to fully fear God. This Hebrew word for unite is only used here. Cousin forms of the word occur two other times. I will emphasize the word.

Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly…Genesis 49:6

…you will not join them in burial…Isaiah 14:20

So David was asking God to unite or join his heart. He wanted internal unity. As if there were two warring desires within him. A desire for the self and a desire for God. On our own, we will never choose God. We will always choose the self. Any choice of ours that is God over self originates in God’s work within us. That’s the story of my life and your life. Sin and selfishness are otherwise too pervasive, too powerful.

David prayed that God would work within him so that he would be able to respond to God. David needed a heart that wasn’t divided. He needed his motivations and decision-making process to be joined with God. He longed for unity where there was division. He was a man after God’s heart, because he wanted a heart like God’s. He was a leader that wanted to be led. A man who wanted his submission to God to not be laced with hypocrisy. He feared God too much to want otherwise. Man, does that describe us or do we delight in our little secretly-divided hearts?–JMB