Incline my heart unto thy testimonies
To read the word of God, to hear it opened and explained, to
observe and keep the things contained in it; to which there is a
disinclination in men naturally: but the Lord, who fashions the
hearts of men, and has them in his hands, can bend and incline
them by his efficacious grace to regard these his testimonies;
which, as Aben Ezra observes, are more precious than all
substance, and so are opposed to what follows:
and not to covetousness;
not to mammon or money, as the Targum; the love of it, which is
the root of all evil, and very pernicious and harmful; in hearing
the word it chokes it, and makes it unfruitful, ( 1 Timothy
6:9 1 Timothy
6:10 ) ( Matthew
13:22 ) . Not that God inclines the heart to evil, as he does
to good; but he may suffer the heart to be inclined, and may
leave a man to the natural inclinations of his heart, and to the
temptations of Satan, and the snares of the world, which may have
great influence upon him; and this is what is here deprecated;
see ( Psalms
141:4 ) ( Matthew 6:13
) .