“Teach Me”

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

BIBLE READING: Psalm 119.33-40

“Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end.” (Psalm 119.33)

Our oldest child is becoming more and more independent. She doesn’t want help getting dressed or buckling her car seat. She wants to do it herself. Still there are times she needs help doing or understanding things. She knows the box opens but doesn’t know how to work the latch. She sees words on a page but doesn’t yet understand how to read them. She tugs on my arm and says, “Daddy, show me. Teach me.”

There is a hunger that children for have for learning with little pretense of what others think. As we age, we tend to lose this attitude. It morphs into, “I already know” or “I’ve got this”. We build barriers of self-sufficiency that not only impede learning but block other sources of reason and learning. This hardening robs us of vitality and growth, and positions us in the very narrow view of our own understanding. Given enough time this attitude infiltrates and damages our relationship with God.

A meditation of Psalm 119 is a good way to reset this attitude. The writer taps into this child-like hunger for understanding the best way – God’s way. This psalm emphasizes the sufficiency of God’s word to lead us to life; but we also learn much about the attitude we must have towards God's precepts. When the psalmist says, “teach me”, we see an attitude of…

1. Desire. To do it right. To understand God's word reveals the best way to live. The writer has no pretense that he knows what is best. He is a blank page ready to be written on by God.
2. Humility. There is no power struggle in his request. Whoever he is/was is irrelevant. He wants God to lead him in his ways, not his own! (Psalm 119.36)
3. Dependence. He cannot walk this path with his own understanding. Each line of this section is a request for God’s revelation and work to give him life (Psalm 119.40).

These qualities not only produce growth but develop greater trust in God. Are these qualities we bring to our bible reading?

• Do we want to know what is the best way or are we looking for a pat on the head? Rarely does the bible coddle us, but instead challenges us with change.
• Are we willing to change, or have we decided we have it all figured out? We know, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4.6), but that means we don’t fight what he says is best. We need God’s word to affirm our strengths but also to address our most vulnerable areas.
• Do we believe life is best doing it God’s way? His words lead us to peace, joy, hope… life! There are many ways that seem right to us that are not good (Proverbs 14.12 … how long will we walk that path before we truly depend on him?

My prayer is we will become like children in our understanding. Lord, teach me… show me…“Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.” (Psalm 119.34)

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