Enlarge My Heart! | Psalm 119

We’ve been looking through the imaginative, word-brushed paintings of God’s life-creating power in Genesis 1-3 as we read Psalm 119. (To understand more what makes Psalm 119 so unique in the Bible, read the show notes from the Dec 21 episode.) Genesis 3 is a powerful picture of the resulting dysfunctions in every human heart after the man and woman (Adam and Eve) chose to transgress God’s one commandment. Genesis 3 poetically paints the human story of how, now driven by insecurities and distrust, we hide from God behind all the trees and cover ourselves and our shame from one another while seeking to manipulate others for our selfish desires. But https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203%3A15&version=NIV (Genesis 3:15) also foreshadows that God will ultimately destroy the Serpent and our resulting dysfunction through the death and resurrection and victory of the male human offspring of the woman. We’re in the middle of that story right now, between Jesus’s death and resurrection and ascension, while we await his kingdom coming to bring a new, resurrected body and soul to his people, and to renew and restore all creation. And in the middle of this already/not-yet reality, God is progressively renewing and transforming his people through his Spirit (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%203%3A18&version=NIV (2 Cor 3:18)). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%204%3A6&version=NIV (2 Corinthians 4:6) uses the poetic imagery of https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201%3A1-2%3A3&version=NIV (Genesis 1:2-3) as a picture of what God’s Spirit must do in the heart of every follower of Christ. Several Old Testament prophecies tell of this heart transformation that will come. Like almost all Old Testament prophecies, these promises are already but not yet, just as Christ’s coming is already but not yet. Partially now in the hearts of all followers of Christ through his Spirit, but not fully until Christ brings bodily resur