Psalms 119:35 (KJV) God’s Sovereignty or Man’s Free Will? Yes and Yes

Psalms 119:35 (KJV)
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

I was stricken with the apparent contradiction but observable truth that to delight in a thing, to desire to do a thing, especially when it is a good thing, does not necessarily mean one will do that thing.

The Psalmist delights in the path of God’s commandments but he must pray that God would make him go in them. I am reminded of Paul’s painful words in Romans 7:19 (KJV) For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. The Psalmist pleads with God to address in him this painful reality.

The word, make, means to incline or to bend. He is asking God to give him not only a delight in the path of His commandments but an inclination to do them.

This brings up the whole issue of the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man. Is it so that I cannot go in the path of God’s commandments without His making me, or am I a free moral agent responsible to discern and then do the right? The answer is “Yes” on both counts.

God is so much higher than man that we cannot comprehend Him. Our finite nature has to put things of this nature into boxes of limit. We choose one or the other; sovereignty or free will. By doing so we create divisions among ourselves, we err from the Word of God and miss the truthful message of God’s work. Philosophy and human reason longs to elevate man to godlikeness, putting God into a box we can understand. Humble servanthood sets this ambition aside and lets God be God and not ourselves.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Psalms 119:35 (KJV) God’s Sovereignty or Man’s Free Will? Yes and Yes

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.