John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:36

"Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, And not to covetousness." — Psalms 119:36 (ASV)

Incline my heart. In this verse, he confesses that the human heart is so far from yielding to the justice of God that it is more inclined to follow an opposite course. If we were naturally and spontaneously inclined to the righteousness of the law, there would be no occasion for the Psalmist's petition, Incline my heart.

It remains, therefore, that our hearts are full of sinful thoughts and wholly rebellious, until God by His grace changes them. This confession on the part of the prophet must not be overlooked: that the natural corruption of humanity is so great that we seek for anything rather than what is right, until we are turned by the power of God to new obedience, and thus begin to be inclined to that which is good.

In the second clause of the verse, the prophet points to those impediments that prevent humanity from attaining the desire for righteousness: their being inclined to covetousness. By a figure of speech, in which a part is put for the whole, the species is put for the genus.

The Hebrew term בצע batsang signifies to use violence, or to covet, or to defraud; but covetousness is most in accordance with the spirit of the passage, provided we admit the prophet selected this species, the root of all evils (1 Timothy 6:10), to demonstrate that nothing is more opposed to the righteousness of God.

We are here instructed generally that we are so much under the influence of perverse and vicious affections that our hearts abhor the study of God’s law, until God inspires us with the desire for that which is good.