11 Teach me Your way, O Lord;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And will glorify Your name forever.
13 For Your lovingkindness toward me is great,
And You have delivered my soul from the [c]depths of [d]Sheol.14 O God, arrogant men have risen up against me,
And [e]a band of violent men have sought my [f]life,
And they have not set You before them.
15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and [g]truth.
16 Turn to me, and be gracious to me;
Oh grant Your strength to Your servant,
And save the son of Your handmaid.
17 Show me a sign for good,
That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,
Because You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
In the second half of this psalm, a theme begins to appear right away. At first, I read “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” and thought, “What in the world does that mean?” The NKJV uses the same phrase “Unite my heart”, and the NLT was less than helpful with “Grant me purity of heart…” But maybe they were on to something, and a thought began to surface that was confirmed by the NIV translation.
Maybe you already figured it out, and perhaps I’m just slow this morning, but “Unite my heart” is the opposite of a divided heart. So the psalmist is asking God to help him have an undivided heart. That is, to be focused solely on God, and in this instance, specifically to respect and honor God. In vs. 12 again we see that the psalmist will give thanks and glorify God with all his heart.
This is then in contrast to the violent men of vs. 14 who “have not set You before them”. The psalmist also asks for strength in vs. 16, perhaps to escape from his enemies, but we also need God’s strength to have a “united” heart. It’s no easy feat in this world to keep our eyes on Him. Jesus told us that “a house divided cannot stand” and “you cannot serve two masters”.
So like the psalmist, today we ask God to unite our hearts. Keep us from being distracted by the world and all it’s pleasures, or even by our own thoughts, plans, and dreams. Help us to fix our gaze on You, to remember to honor You in everything we do. (In the words of the psalmist) We thank you that Your lovingkindness is great toward us, and that You have delivered our souls from the very depths of Hell (Sheol). Give us strength that we may give thanks and glorify Your name forever. Amen (let it be so). Or as Jesus said, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.”