Psalms 119:32:  “I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.”

As we all know, Psalms 119 is written in an acrostic poetical style.  In other words David has taken this Psalm with 22 stanzas of eight verses each. Each stanza  follows the Hebrew Alphabet. For instance Psalms 119:25-32 is titled Daleth which is the fourth letter of the Alphabet and represents a D in English. Daleth also represents a doorway or portal. In this stanza David is relating in these eight verses his desire to know and understand the law of God, the Torah or for us the Word of God. He knows that the Word of God will open a portal or doorway to God’s pleasure.

He will run with the law of God once God enlarges his heart.  This is such an interesting and poetic expression. The word run in Hebrew is arutz which is your common word for run and literally means to run. Today running is something very common. We jog, we run races, we run from the rain, we run across halls to make it to class in time, running is very much a part of our culture. In ancient Semitic times things moved much slower and people did not do much running.  In fact in its Semitic origins this word arutz which we render as run is a word that is used for a courier who is making great haste to meet his king and bring him a message. The picture here is of David running with the commandments of God to not only fulfill them and share them with others, but also to reach his King as soon as possible to finish his race greeted by his king.

But check out the rest of the verse, he will do it when God enlarges his heart.   Yesterday I was reading an article about the rankings of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. I was surprised to see that the 35^th greatest athlete went by the name of Secretariat. Yes, a horse made the list of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.  Secretariat, or Big Red as he is also known is considered the greatest race horse in history. I went on You Tube and watch the actual footage showing the race where Secretariat won the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes. He finished the race at 31 lengths ahead of the next horse. I mean that horse just could not have been human, ah, you know what I mean. No other race horse in history from then until now has come close to the record set by Secretariat. After Secretariat died an autopsy revealed that he had a heart that weighed 22 pounds, 2 ½  times the size of a normal horse’s heart. This is rare but not unheard of for his blood line.  However, never has such a horse with an enlarged heart accomplished so much. He indeed could not have run like he did without the enlarged heart but he needed something more. In watching the footage of the race I felt something as I watched Secretariat move ahead of Sham in the stretch and widened his lead by 1/16 of a mile. I felt something almost spiritual.

I read a book by Lawrence Scanlan called The Horse that God Built and in this book Scanlan makes a case that much of the success behind Secretariat was a man of faith name Eddie Sweat, Secretariat’s groom and the man who spent the most time with Secretariat. Sweat spent his life around races horses and died penniless. Yet, he seemed to have a supernatural connection with Secretariat. There have been many race horses with an enlarged heart, yet it took something more to make Secretariat the champion he was. I believe there was a spiritual element involved.

It was an enlarged heart that gave Secretariat the ability to run and set world records that remain unbroken, but Secretariat had to want to run. He had to have a reason to run. No one can say what it is, bright lights, cheering crowds, the encouragement of an experienced jockey or maybe it was that even a horse can feel God’s pleasure when it runs and a humble groom encouraged this in Secretariat as he went about his business caring for Secretariat doing all as unto God. He worshiped God as he cared for Secretariat and maybe Secretariat even joined him in his worship of God. Yeah, I know, that’s crazy talk but you know as I examine the depths of Psalms 119:32 in the original Hebrew, well I just have to wonder.

You see this word run or arutz in Hebrew is spelled Aleph, Resh, Vav, and Sade.  The Aleph presents a unity with the Resh which represents the Holy Spirit and the Vav is a connection with the natural to perform a humble task. Secretariat’s whole purpose in life was to run and God made him fast and when he ran he could feel God’s pleasure. If God gave him an enlarged heart to run faster and further that is what he did to feel God’s pleasure. In that bonding with his groom Secretariat learned that he could experience God’s pleasure when he ran.

God has given us a humble task of taking his Word and running with it to obey it and share it with others.   David is saying he will run with this when God enlarges his heart.

The word enlarge is rechav.  No matter how I look at this word, there is no better rendering as enlarge. The word heart is lev in a hiphal imperfect form.  This has the idea that he is continually enlarging our hearts to run with His Word.  The word for heart can be both physical and spiritual.  This could mean that God will strengthen our physical hearts to carry out His Word.  More than likely David is speaking metaphorically and for right now I can see it that way.  You may have a heart that is broken, wounded or just worn out.  You are in such emotional agony that you can’t make another move.  Yet when you pick up the Word of God and feel God’s pleasure you want to run with it, but you are so burden with troubles and sorrow you cannot run.  David is saying that if you want to run with his Word, he will enlarge you heart and give you that capacity to run and feel his pleasure as Eddie Sweat and Secretariat felt. You can run again, run with the wind and feel the pleasure of God’s Word such pleasure you will just out distance other runners by 31 lengths out of pure pleasure. You see God promises to enlarge your heart to spiritually run with record setting speed and distance.

Secretariat did not need to run 31 lengths ahead of the other horses to win the race, but he ran 31 lengths just for the pleasure of running and passing through that finish line as soon as possible. God does not need to enlarge our hearts for us to win the race, He gives us that enlarged heart to reach that Daleth or portal into God’s pleasure as soon as possible.  He does it so we can run past all the cares and sorrow of this world as fast as possible. He does it so we can run as far away from the cares and sorrows of this world as far as we can. We will run, run out of pure pleasure to that finish line where Jesus will be there waiting to greet and to say, “Well, done thou good and faithful servant.”  OK,  let’s just put that into modern English so we can truly understand it.  God will hug us and say, “You done good, you done good.”