On The Journey--He!

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;
Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies,
And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,
And revive me in Your way.
Establish Your word to Your servant,
Who is devoted to fearing You.
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your judgments are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
Revive me in Your righteousness. 119:33-40 NKJV

The fifth letter and the fifth segment is demanding, commanding or imploring--with seven of the eight verses beginning with a verb. The implied subject (from the English educator) is "You" and in this case, the Psalmist is talking to God.

Teach, give, make, incline, turn, establish--all designed to let us know, the write was serious about what they needed and their understanding of what they needed to do.

Teach me--and I shall keep it until the end. For most of us, if we are taught something thoroughly and we our comprehension is not hindered, we remember what we have been taught. There's a saying that everything we ever needed in life, we learned in kindergarten. And if we take the time to think about all we learned in a kindergarten class, we realize this is true--not just from an academic position, but with socializing as well. Have we forgotten our alphabet or how to count or our colors? Have we forgotten how to say, "thank you" and "please?" Have we forgotten (in this country) to always move to the right?"

Teaching, however is more than just presenting information, it requires application, and analysis, and synthesis--ability to strategically see the concept and principle at work in more than one venue.

Give me understanding--again whenever we are taught anything, if we cannot comprehend what has been taught, we have not learned anything.

And sometimes, we have to made to work on what we have learned--homework comes to mind. Do we practice what we have learned on a consistent basis?

Create a desire--incline my heart--in me to appreciate the testimonies of others without allowing me become jealous and covet what You have done for others.

Turn my eyes away from things that don't matter and keep my focus on learning of You. Have we asked God to turn us from seeing, greed, manipulation, deception, the desire to impress others when we have nothing by which to impress them?

Establish your word--cause what you are teaching me to take deep root in my spirit and soul so I'll never forget who You are and how much you love. Do we have reverential fear of God? Do we want His Word so deeply rooted in us that even thinking about doing wrong, brings conviction?

And when I have fallen short, don't let my shortcomings be exposed to others, but judge me according to Your righteous judgment. Is this our attitude when we've messed up or do we always blame someone else for those things we do  that cause us shame?

Look at me God! I long for your principles and want only to live according to Your righteousness! Do we long to keep God's principles in place in every area of our lives? Do we even understand them to keep them?

From everything we see on the news, it is obvious that many have either never understood His principles or they have forgotten them, since there is little evidence that they are being applied to our daily lives. Do we treat others the way we want to be treated? If that was true, lives would not be lost on a daily basis.

It's time to re-think our actions and meditate on God's Word so we can see change in the new year--making it better than the last!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!