{"id":3444,"date":"2012-05-24T09:34:58","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T16:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2024-03-26T12:35:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:35:44","slug":"teach-me-oh-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2012\/05\/24\/teach-me-oh-lord\/","title":{"rendered":""Teach me, Oh Lord""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The following has been adapted from The History and Authenticity of the Bible<\/em>, a free class available at the Blue Letter Bible Institute<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In Psalm 119, we have a lot of beautiful statements. Let\u2019s just highlight a few.<\/p>\n

In verses 26 and 27, we see a prayer. \u201cI have declared my ways and Thou heardest me. Teach me Thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts. So shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about you? Do you ask God, \u201cTeach me Your statutes?\u201d Do you say, \u201cMake me understand?\u201d To say, \u201cMake me understand\u201d\u2014and it\u2019s because of a grammatical form of the word that it\u2019s translated \u201cmake me to understand\u201d\u2014it suggests that there\u2019s a natural tendency on our part not to do this. Somehow, God needs to give us nudgings and proddings to make us understand. The psalmist was recognizing his own depravity and resistance when he says, \u201cmake me to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psalm 119:33-34 says, \u201cTeach me [again the prayer] Teach me O Lord, the way of Thy statutes.\u201d Notice back in verse 26 he said, \u201cTeach me Thy statutes\u201d and here he says, \u201cTeach me the way of Thy statutes.\u201d See, when you come to study the Bible, it\u2019s not just the content that you get down, but it\u2019s the point of the content. It\u2019s the direction in which God wants you to go by what you have learned. And sometimes we see people who are very intelligent in the Bible, but they don\u2019t know<\/em> what it means. They don\u2019t know how to apply<\/em> it. They don\u2019t know the direction they should walk because of it. And that comes as a result of dependency upon God as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeach me [not only Your statutes, but teach me] the way of Your statutes and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding. I shall keep Thy law. Yeah, I shall observe it with my whole heart.\u201d Sometimes when the Bible clearly shows you something you should do, but it\u2019s contrary to what you do, all of a sudden your mind thinks, \u201cI wonder if there\u2019s another interpretation?\u201d Funny how that works, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

In Psalm 119:68 it says, \u201cThou art good and doest good. Teach me Thy statutes.\u201d Here we have a motive for our obedience and conforming to the word of God\u2014because everything behind it is good. \u201cAll things work together for good\u201d (Romans 8:28). God is good. \u201cHis goodness leads to repentance\u201d (Romans 2:4). So pray, Lord, I want to learn. I know that behind all of this is Your goodness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 73 says, \u201cThy hands have made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments.\u201d You know you can learn how to recite something by memorizing it. But did you actually learn<\/em> it? You might be able to reduplicate something on a test, but has it become part of your lifestyle? Has the word of God conformed you from the inside out?<\/p>\n

Verse 169 says, \u201cLet my cry come near before Thee O Lord. Give me understanding according to Thy word.\u201d All the way through this, there\u2019s a hunger. There\u2019s a thirst. There\u2019s a cry from God\u2019s servant to the Lord. \u201cLord, I want to know Your word more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

By God’s grace, may we hunger in this way!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following has been adapted from The History and Authenticity of the Bible, a free class available at the Blue Letter Bible Institute. In Psalm 119, we have a lot of beautiful statements. Let\u2019s just highlight a few. In verses 26 and 27, we see a prayer. \u201cI have declared my ways and Thou heardest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":3451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9240,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions\/9240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}