Heart Fever and the Nature of Man

The focus of this poem is how our hearts are sick above all things (Jer. 17:9). Our best intentions, our highest hopes, our most selfless motives, are nonetheless tainted and always at risk of pollution.

The heart of the flesh protects itself at others’ expense and nurses grievances and grudges. It is a sin factory and a shrewd lawyer, not that confronts and convicts self but shreds any threat against it and denies, denies, denies. It is fueled not by love but by jealousy, anger, bitterness, greed, insecurity, pride, and fear.

“I dare not think my thoughts supreme.” In other words, not even my best intentions are truly pure. How could I trust even what I think are my best ideas yet? Given my “past unjust” and what I know my heart is, I fear placing too much trust in myself. If “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart [is] only evil all the time,” what hope do we have apart from the anchoring truth of Christ?

In the words of Romans 3, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Their throats are open graves; they practice deceit (Ps. 5:9). The poison of vipers is on their lips (Ps. 140:3), and their mouths are full of bitterness (Ps. 10:7). Ruin and misery mark their ways, and “the way of peace they do not know” (Is. 59:7-8).

And then there’s Jeremiah 13:23: “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”

It’s easy to fall into the trap of our current age when it comes to the nature of man. Some believe he is a creature who is basically good, moving toward healthy self-actualization. Others suggest that he is subject to a series of messages or a script he learned in childhood, and he becomes good or evil. Still others concur that man is neither good nor bad but rather an irrational machine controlled by amoral biological instincts and environmental stimuli.

Yet let God be true, and every man a liar (Rom. 3:4).

Recently, I came across a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be.” Or in the words of John Owen, “The seed of every sin is in every heart.” What a wake-up call.

The poem ends with an exhortation to “guard with vigilance” what we have been given, from our hearts to our ideas, dreams, motives, and loves. They can so easily be distorted and polluted. The human heart is sick, but (good news!) His grace runs deeper still.

On the Sickness of My Heart

The heart is sick above all things;

Its secrets who can know?

Speak not, for the “heart that sings”

Would rather reap than sow—

Would in danger creep and cower

Without dignity or shame

Or rally for the finest hour

To guard its fragile name—

Would fuel the forest’s spreading fire;

Would its grievance nurse;

Compelled by jealousy, desire,

Would praise God and brother, curse.

I dare not think my thoughts supreme;

With such a past unjust,

Why would e’en a selfless dream

Be worthy of my trust?

Such a curse must all things skew—

My compassion, my ambition,

What I purpose, seek, and listen to,

My desire, passion, mission.

How does fare the healthy heart

When the sickness pierces deep? Let us not be blind to any part

But like the righteous weep.

O guard with vigilance your trust;

With humility, ambition;

Loves, with what is pure and just,

Looking to the Great Physician.

My soul, no longer weep.

Release your precious will.

Your malady runs deep;

His grace runs deeper still.

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…

Romans 5:20