You have no doubt heard the advice to “follow your heart.” It is good counsel, except when it isn’t. Let me explain.

Some of us, at many times and in many ways, do need to follow our hearts. We have a feeling, a hunch, an intuition, or a dream in our hearts. We need to go with that! Self-doubt may masquerade as humility, but such doubt is not always the best guide.

However, a lot depends on what sort of heart you have, as well as what your heart is telling you at any given moment. Sometimes, I’ve followed my own heart, and caused a great deal of harm to myself and others. Maybe I’m unique in this regard, but I seriously doubt it.

Psalm 36 warns about the danger of following our hearts when they are not in the right place. At least, that is the way I would take the psalm. However, there is a problem in translating verse 1.

Here’s the deal. A literal rendering of verse 1 (verse 2 in Hebrew) would go something like this: “An utterance of rebellion to the wicked in his heart.” There are many problems with translating this verse, and I won’t go into them all here. Both you and your guide could easily get lost, never to be found.

Because it is such a strange and difficult verse, many modern translators try to smooth it out, but to my own way of thinking it seems to be best translated as I have done above. Several things should be noted.

First, the word that I’ve translated “utterance” is a Hebrew word that usually refers to an authoritative speech. Usually, such authoritative speech is said to come from God or a prophet. But, if I am properly interpreting the word in its context in Psalm 36, it means that the wicked person has an authoritative utterance of transgression (or rebellion) emanating from his very heart. An oracle has taken up residence in his very heart. Unfortunately this “authoritative word” is all about rebellion!

Whoa! (Or should I say, “Woe!”)

To say that a person has an oracle of rebellion, an authoritatively wicked utterance set up in his heart, is a chilling reminder of how wicked the heart can be. And, of course, such wickedness in the heart has consequences in the outward life. Thus, the wicked person—presumably following the oracle of his heart—goes off the rails. Shoot! He doesn’t even believe that there are any rails! So, Psalm 36 continues as follows:

“Psa. 36:1b      there is no fear of God

                        before his eyes.

Psa. 36:2         For he flatters himself in his own eyes

                        that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

Psa. 36:3         The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;

                        he has ceased to act wisely and do good.

Psa. 36:4         He plots trouble while on his bed;

                        he sets himself in a way that is not good;

                        he does not reject evil.”

Derek Kidner, in his 1973 commentary on Psalms 1-72 (Tyndale series), writes the following:

“The opening words, lit. ‘An oracle of transgression’, make a startling heading to the portrait of this dedicated sinner. It is as though transgression itself were his god or prophet. . . . While a believer sets his course towards God himself, this man does not take even ‘the terror of the Lord’ into account. This is the culminating symptom of sin in Romans 3:18, a passage which teaches us to see this portrait as that of man (but for the grace of God) rather than of an abnormally wicked type. All men as fallen have these characteristics, latent or developed.”

Kidner goes on to point out that people who have wicked hearts that lead to evil actions also experience “. . . a wholesale reversal of values, leaving good powerless to attract, and evil to repel. Cf. Alexander Pope on a possible series of steps towards this:

‘Vice is a monster of so frightful mien

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;

Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.[Vol 15: Psa, p. 165]’”

Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t sound scary to you, you should really be scared. If you’re scared, then be sure to guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23)! It is only the guarded heart that should be followed.