First Give the Heart to God, and Then Delight Will Follow
T. Christlieb, D.D. Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. Would it not be much more natural to reverse the order? First, learn to delight in God's ways, and the more we rejoice in them the more easily we may learn to love Him, to give Him our heart. So it would seem love will grow out of delight. But how wise is God's order! First the heart, then delight. For the second is, in reality, only possible when the first has been accomplished. Thousands strive to find pleasure in the ways of God, but because they have not yet given their heart to Him, because they still go their own ways, and God crosses those ways again and again, they only get as far as to bow their heads in a kind of dull resignation under some Divine visitation; but they never delight in all God's ways; they never attain to a comforting hope which even in dark days does not cast away its confidence, and which has so great a reward. Oh, examine thyself, whence comes it that thou hast so often murmured at God's ways, hast felt thyself hardly dealt with, and couldst not forgive Him that He did not lead thee by another way, that He took this away from thee and left that, when thou wouldst have chosen the contrary? It comes from this — thou hast not given thy whole heart to God! Only when thy heart shall rest in Him, and in His peace, will it be contented with all His dispensations. (T. Christlieb, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. WEB: My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.