There’s a song which I really love that we sing at our church a lot. The chorus comes straight from Psalm 86. It goes like this: “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” After singing it on a recent Sunday morning and getting it stuck in my head the rest of the day, I started really thinking about the words for the first time. Upon reflection, I came up with this crucial question: How in the world am I supposed to have an “undivided heart”?

King David wrote this psalm, so if by “heart” he means my mind and understanding and my whole inner self, then I can already tell this is going to be a tough one for me. I live my life doing and thinking about several things at the same time. In fact, like a lot of women, I pride myself on my high-level multi-tasking abilities. When we go on long car trips, I’m amazed at my (very intelligent) husband’s ability to just drive and drive while maybe listening to music. After a few miles tick by, sometimes I’ll ask him, “What are you thinking about?” He’ll almost always say, “Nothing.” This is ludicrous to me. I’m simultaneously thinking about what we need from Kroger, birthday present ideas for our kids, a plot twist in the sci-fi thriller series we’ve been watching, and so forth. So if “undivided heart” means “undivided mind,” then I’m in trouble.

So I did a little digging into Psalm 86. David wrote this very personal prayer asking God—David’s sovereign Lord—for help. As theologian Matthew Henry explains this prayerful psalm, “It is true, prayer accidentally may preach, but it is most fit that (as it is in this prayer) every passage should be directed to God, for such is the nature of prayer.” So I tried to digest each verse of this psalm as a prayer sent from a world-weary, down-trodden man to his Lord to see if this would give me a clue as to how I could develop an undivided heart.

Concentrating on verses 11-12, I read: “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” Whether or not David meant for these to be sequential steps, I’m approaching them that way as I aim for a single-minded commitment to seeking God’s will. 1) Ask God to teach me His way.s 2) Then I’m more likely to rely on Him. 3) Ask God to give me a pure heart. 4) Then I’ll revere and submit to the wonder of God. 5) And the end result will be demonstrated by a life of praise and adoration.

As I studied these verses, I realized that my original uncertainty about my own “undivided heart” was for good reason. It is actually impossible for me to make this happen…without God. That’s why this is a prayer and not a tutorial. David knew how he was feeling—scared, destitute, surrounded by his enemies—so he took his worries to Adonai. Not because this was one potential solution among many, but because a God-trusting, name-fearing undivided heart beats for one reason—to glorify Him.

I heard one of our ministers say once that it’s not about making God your #1 priority. It’s about making Him THE priority. Full stop. And if this sounds too difficult or you think your heart has been sliced up into too many pieces for too long, take comfort from the words of Ezekiel 11. In this chapter, God is talking about His chosen people who have worshipped idols and done every other despicable thing they could think of, but He is ready to give them spiritual heart surgery. He said, “They will return to (the land of Israel) and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” Lord, give me an undivided heart!