Psalms 118:32
I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart. HE
Open Psalms 118:32 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri, cum dilatasti cor meum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁδὸν ἐντολῶν σου ἔδραμον, ὅταν ἐπλάτυνας τὴν καρδίαν μου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:32
- דֶּֽרֶךְ מִצְוֺתֶ֥יךָ אָר֑וּץ כִּ֖י תַרְחִ֣יב לִבִּֽי
Haydock's commentary
Heart. Man runs, but God must impart grace. (Worthington)
An enlarged heart sometimes denotes the capacity of understanding, 3 Kings iv. 29. (Calmet)
But it is a singular mercy of God to make us love his commands. (St. Augustine)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Daleth
30. 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. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII, Chapter XXVII. How anger should be repressed
We ought then to restrain every movement of anger and moderate it under the direction of discretion, that we may not by blind rage be hurried into that which is condemned by Solomon: “The wicked man expends all his anger, but the wise man dispenses it bit by bit,” i.e., a fool is inflamed by the passion of his anger to avenge himself; but a wise man, by the ripeness of his counsel and moderation little by little diminishes it, and gets rid of it. Something of the same kind too is this which is said by the Apostle: “Not avenging yourselves, dearly beloved: but give place to wrath,” i.e., do not under the compulsion of wrath proceed to vengeance, but give place to wrath, i.e., do not let your hearts be confined in the straits of impatience and cowardice so that, when a fierce storm of passion rises, you cannot endure it; but be ye enlarged in your hearts, receiving the adverse waves of ang …