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Psalm 119:36
Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
34Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.
35Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.
36Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
37Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.
38Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared.
Notice
The request to turn the heart exposes a contest of desires: God's statutes and selfish gain can pull a person in different directions.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
Where, if anywhere, does the prospect of gain compete with obedience in your choices?
Write on thisWhat changes when you pray for your heart's direction as well as your actions?
Write on thisWhich of God's commands would you like to want more than personal gain?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 119:5Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!Both prayers express a desire to obey God's statutes, one seeking steadfast ways and the other a heart turned toward them.
Philippians 2:13For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.The psalm asks God to turn the heart toward obedience; Philippians says God works in believers' willing and doing.
2 Thessalonians 3:5May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and into the perseverance of Christ.Both prayers ask the Lord to direct hearts, toward his statutes in the psalm and toward love and perseverance in Thessalonians.
Hebrews 13:5Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”The psalm seeks freedom from the pull of selfish gain; Hebrews commands freedom from the love of money and contentment with present possessions.
Luke 12:15He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”Selfish gain is the danger named in the psalm; Jesus warns against covetousness and measuring life by possessions.
Psalm 141:4Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.Both prayers ask God to govern the heart's direction, resisting selfish gain in one and evil deeds in the other.
Mark 7:21–22For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,Both passages locate the concern within the heart: one asks for its turning, while Jesus names evils that come from it.
1 Kings 8:58that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.Both prayers ask God to incline hearts toward obedience, with his statutes named as the way to follow.
Psalm 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.Both prayers bring the heart to God for change, seeking a clean heart in Psalm 51 and a heart directed toward statutes here.
Exodus 20:17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, …The prayer resists selfish gain, while the commandment forbids coveting a neighbor's household or anything that belongs to the neighbor.
Colossians 3:5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.Both texts oppose grasping desire: the psalm names selfish gain, and Colossians commands putting covetousness to death.
Psalm 119:112I have set my heart to perform your statutes forever, even to the end. SAMEKHBoth verses join the heart to God's statutes: one asks God to turn it, and the other declares a resolve to obey.
Where this verse fits
Temptation. envy and comparison. wanting a steady prayer habit.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The request reaches beneath outward conduct to what the heart wants. Asking God to turn your desires toward his statutes belongs within a life of obedience.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).