Psalms 119:32
in Psalms 119I run in the path of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I will run the way of thy commandments, When thou shalt enlarge my heart. ה HE.
KJV
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
⋯
This verse in Psalms 119
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWe then run the way of our duty, when we are ready to it, and pleasant in it, and lay aside every weight, Heb. xii. His dependence upon God for grace to do so: "I shall then abound in thy work, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. " God, by his Spirit, enlarges the hearts of his people when he gives them wisdom (for that is called largeness of heart, 1 Kings iv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
This site's exposition
My soul cleaves to the dust
on Psalms 119:25-32
He begins on the floor, his soul clinging to the dust, and asks to be revived according to the word. By the end he is choosing and moving: the way of truth chosen, the path of the commandments run. Verse 32 has God enlarging the heart he runs with.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
But after he had said, "And pity me according to Thy law;" he mentioneth some of those blessings which he hath already obtained, that he may ask others that he hath not yet gained. For he saith, "I have chosen the way of truth: and Thy judgments I have not forgotten" (ver. 30). "I have stuck unto Thy testimonies: O Lord, confound me not" (ver. 31): may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may I arrive whither I am running! So then "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." He next saith, "I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast widened my heart" (ver. 32). I could not run hadst Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, "I have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Thy testimonies," is clearly explained in this verse. For this running is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he doth allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How hast thou run that way, by choosing, and by not forgetting the judgments of God, and by sticking to His testimonies? Couldest thou do these things by thyself? I could not, he replieth. It is not therefore through my own will, as though it needed no aid of Thine; but because "Thou has widened my heart." The widening of the heart is the delight we take in righteousness. This is the gift of God, the effect of which is, that we are not straitened in His commandments through the fear of punishment, but widened through love, and the delight we have in righteousness. ...
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Together with fear one must also love God. When the heart is enlarged through love, then man easily keeps the commandments of God. I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart. He says that the way of God's commandments …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I will run the way of thy commandments,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
In order to adhere to His word, we must seek deliverance from temptations to sin as well as from despondency. enlarge--or, "expand" my heart--with gracious affections.
"I will run the way of thy commandments." With energy, promptitude, and zeal he would perform the will of God, but he needed more life and liberty from the hand of God. "When thou shalt enlarge my heart." Yes, the heart is the master; the feet soon run when the heart is free and energetic. Let the affections be aroused and eagerly set on divine things, and our actions will be full of force, swiftness, and delight. God must work in us first, and then we shall will and do according to his good pleasure. He must change the heart, unite the heart, encourage the heart, strengthen the heart, and enlarge the heart, and then the course of the life will be gracious, sincere, happy, and earnest; so that from our lowest up to our highest state in grace we must attribute all to the free favour of our God. We must run; for grace is not an overwhelming force which compels unwilling minds to move contrary to their will: our running is the spontaneous leaping forward of a mind which has been set free by the hand of God, and delights to show its freedom by its bounding speed. What a change from Psa 119:25 to the present, from cleaving to the dust to running in the way. It is the excellence of holy sorrow that it works in us the quickening for which we seek, and then we show the sincerity of our grief and the reality of our revival by being zealous in the ways of the Lord. For the third time an octave closes with, "I will." These "I wills" of the Psalms are right worthy of being each one the subject of study and discourse. Note how the heart has been spoken of up to this point: "whole heart" (Psa 119:2), "uprightness of heart" (Psa 119:7), "hid in mine heart" (Psa 119:11), "enlarge my heart." There are many more allusions further on, and these all go to show what heart work David's religion was.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
"I will run the way of thy commandments." With energy, promptitude, and zeal he would perform the will of God, but he needed more life and liberty from the hand of God. "When thou shalt enlarge my heart." Yes, the heart is the master; the feet soon run when the heart is free and energetic. Let the affections be aroused and eagerly set on divine things, and our actions will be full of force, swiftness, and delight. God must work in us first, and then we shall will and do according to his good pleasure.
I will run - The particle כי elci, which we translate when, should be translated because: Because thou shalt enlarge, or dilate, my heart; make plain my path by cleansing me from my impurity, and taking the hinderances out of my way. I will then run without dread of stumbling, and every day make sensible progress.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will run the way of thy commandments - That is, I will not merely keep them - which might be expressed by “I will walk in them,” but I will hasten to keep them; I will do it with alacrity, as when one runs to accomplish an object. I will devote to them all the energies of my life. When thou shalt enlarge my heart - Or, more literally, “For thou wilt enlarge my heart;” expressing confidence that God would do this, so that he would be thus inclined and enabled to keep his commandments. it is an acknowledgment of dependence, and at the same time the expression of a confident belief that God would grant him the grace needful for him. The phrase “to enlarge the heart” means to make it free; to deliver it from all hindrances to what is right; to fill it with noble and holy purposes; to stimulate and animate it. The heart is contracted or made narrow by selfishness, pride, vanity, ambition, covetousness; it is made large by charity, love, hope, benevolence. Sin narrows the soul; religion enlarges it.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דֶּֽרֶךְ־ | derekh- | [the] way of | H1870 → | 707 times |
| מִצְוֹתֶ֥יךָ | mitzvoteikha | commandments your | H4687 → | 181 times |
| אָר֑וּץ | ʾarutz | I run | H7323 → | 103 times |
| כִּ֖י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תַרְחִ֣יב | tarchiv | you enlarge | H7337 → | 25 times |
| לִבִּֽי׃ | libi | heart my | H3820 → | 595 times |
דֶּֽרֶךְ־[the] way of
derekh-H1870 →707 times
מִצְוֹתֶ֥יךָcommandments your
mitzvoteikhaH4687 →181 times
אָר֑וּץI run
ʾarutzH7323 →103 times
כִּ֖יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
תַרְחִ֣יבyou enlarge
tarchivH7337 →25 times
לִבִּֽי׃heart my
libiH3820 →595 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 8:32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
it leads to
- Romans 8:2
For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- Romans 8:2
Through
Hebrews 12:1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set…
it leads to
- 2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
- 1 Corinthians 9:24–27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.
- Philippians 2:16
as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.
- Luke 21:34
But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- 2 Timothy 4:7
Through
John 8:36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
it leads to
- Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- Galatians 5:1
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 119; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 6; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.