“Teach me your way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth: unite my heart to fear our name. 12. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify your name for evermore. 13. For great is your mercy toward me: and you have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”
In the whole psalm, David poured out his heart to God. In this particular passage, he asked God for something and made a promise about what he would do when the promise was fulfilled. This is the theme of today’s offering. First, David prayed, “Teach me your way O Lord…” It was important to David to know God’s way, not the way of the world. The thinking in our day is that there is no one way better than the other. We live in a time of moral relativism. The thinking is that if you want to do something, whether good or bad, it is up to you. Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 gives the same advice. I think that it is repeated for emphasis. Here is the message, “There is a way that seems right unto a man/woman, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (I added “woman” here because “man” is used in the generic sense, meaning “person.”)We cannot plot our own course. We need to be taught the way of the Lord. Second, David prayed, “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify your name forevermore.” David promised that when God had taught him His way, not only would he walk in the truth that God gave him, but he would praise and glorify God. Surely, when we learn the way of the Lord, we will rejoice in that way and praise and glorify His name. We normally think of praising and glorifying God in a setting of public worship. I want to suggest that public praise of God is useless if it is not backed up by a life that praises and glorifies the Lord. People should not just hear our praises, they should see them in the way we live our lives. When we have learned God’s way, we are expected to live our lives based on God’s way. I know that none of us does that perfectly. We know enough about David to know that he did not walk perfectly in God’s way. But we need to set our course in God’s way, and determine to do it. Third, David gave his reason for wanting to be taught God’s way, and to live in that way: “For great is your mercy toward me: and you have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” The preposition “for” speaks loudly to us here. We should learn God’s way, live in His way, praise and glorify Him with our lips and our lives, “for, great is (His) mercy toward (us), and (He) has delivered (our) souls from the lowest hell.” (I added the parentheses to personalize the text.) It should be the desire of our hearts to live a God-pleasing life, and when that life is over to live with Him eternally. David knew, as we do, that this life will end and that when it ends, we want to be right with God. We begin this journey by placing our faith in Jesus Christ, and by following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Take this text personally! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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