1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
2 O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies triumph over me.
3 Let none who look to you be put to shame,
but let the treacherous be shamed and frustrated.
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord,
and teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you have I hoped all the day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your compassion and love,
for they are from everlasting.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
or
my transgressions,
but
think on me in your goodness, O Lord,
according
to your steadfast love.
8 Gracious
and upright is the Lord;
therefore
shall he teach sinners in the way.
9 He
will guide the humble in doing right
and
teach his way to the lowly.
10 All
the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
to
those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
11 For
your name’s sake, O Lord,
be
merciful to my sin, for it is great.
12 Who
are those who fear the Lord?
Them
will he teach in the way that they should choose.
13 Their
soul shall dwell at ease
and
their offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The
hidden purpose of the Lord is for those who fear him
and
he will show them his covenant.
15 My
eyes are ever looking to the Lord,
for
he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn
to me and be gracious to me,
for
I am alone and brought very low.
17 The
sorrows of my heart have increased;
O
bring me out of my distress.
18 Look
upon my adversity and misery
and
forgive me all my sin.
19 Look
upon my enemies, for they are many
and
they bear a violent hatred against me.
20 O
keep my soul and deliver me;
let
me not be put to shame, for I have put my trust in you.
21 Let
integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for
my hope has been in you.
22 Deliver
Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
As is often the case, the psalmist begins by exploring the character of the teacher – the Lord. All learning starts from trust. ‘To you O Lord, I lift up my soul,’ opens this psalm. ‘O my God, in you I trust.’ The psalmist by offering up all his life to this Teacher, whom he trusts utterly. From that sense of trust flows a plea for help. Intertwined in the verses that follow are other prayers – for deliverance from enemies, for relief from distress and for forgiveness.
All these pleas indicate a sense that his ‘tutor in life’ is powerful, can lift him up from circumstances which are out of his control and also show tremendous mercy for those things which are in his control that have veered him off course (even stretching back to his youth, which he asks the Lord not to remember!).
But I would like to focus primarily on the verses asking for guidance and instruction in the ‘way’ of life that leads to friendship with God .
‘Make me to know your ways,’ calls out the psalmist
in verse 4. ‘Teach me your paths.’ This is the translation used in the Church
of England’s Common Worship Psalter[2]. Three other times in this psalm does the Hebrew word
for ‘way’ – derek – make an appearance:
7 Gracious
and upright is the Lord;
therefore shall he teach
sinners in the way.
8 He
will guide the humble in doing right
and
teach his way to the lowly.
12 Who
are those who fear the Lord?
Them
will he teach in the way that they should choose.
The most effective learning of deep and transformative things depends on two dispositions – a gracious and upright teacher and a humble and teachable student. The teacher who is respected and the student who truly wants to learn make a powerful combination.
But how are the lessons learned? What we are discovering more and more these days is how different people learn differently. There are four broad types: activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists. In very general terms:
· Activists learn by doing; happy to have a go
and love new opportunities, experiences and problems from which to learn, but
might take unnecessary risks.
· Reflectors learn standing back and observing; happy
to think, watch and listen before plunging in, but might be slow to make up
their minds and take decisions.
· Theorists learn from exploring ideas, concepts,
systems and theories and ask probing questions with a disciplined rigor but
find disorder, uncertainty, intuition and ambiguity challenging.
· Pragmatists learn best by testing ideas out in
practice and having immediate opportunities to implement realistically what they
are learning by focusing on the task, but tend to be impatient with ‘waffle’.
Given all these different learning preferences, how do each of us learn from God, who made us each to learn in different ways? How does God ‘teach’ us? The psalm uses a word especially in vs 8 and vs12 that is translated as ‘instruct’ in the NIV and both ‘instruct’ and ‘teach’ in the NRSV: and this stems from the same root as the noun ‘torah’. This word means ‘instruction’.
Being open to instruction is the starting point for deep learning. The psalmist is most concerned about this foundation for learning (whatever one’s preferred learning style). Some of this comes from reflecting on the faith stories ‘from of old’ (vs6). Commentators suggest there is a particular link between Exodus 32-34 and the psalm; in particular God’s character as one who is ‘merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Exodus 34.6, compared to Psalm 25.6-7).
The book of the psalms, and indeed the Old Testament in its form today, was gathered together during and after the exile of Judah and Israel, that seminal time of learning in lockdown (and captivity). In that period of disorientation came the greatest learning of all. For in those generations of hardship emerged profound hope. Pragmatists and theorists, reflectors and activists were all bound together into a community of lament and hope. They learned humility and how to be honest about the realities of life as well as that sense of explosive hope based on the lived-in experience of the tenacious faithful love of God.
I believe that over the coming years our community of faith – the Christian community of which I am a member – will need to harness all forms of learning styles in order to be instructed in new ways of God which are also ancient paths of faith. This learning will take time and need to be probed; it will come through action as well as contemplation – indeed both strands will be needed in order for us to truly serve this post-Covid19 traumatised world.
‘Make me know your ways, teach me your paths…’
Free us, God of mercy,
from
all that keeps us from you;
relieve
the misery of the anxious and the ashamed
and
fill us with the hope of peace;
through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Westhill College in Selly Oak, where I studied for my PGCE in secondary education, had as its motto: “to teach is to learn”. Both teachers and learners need to have that openness to learn new things and from one another. How often I have found that it is in the preparation of some instruction or reflection that I have learnt so much myself. There is always so much more to learn and experience.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the humble and lowly who the psalmist identifies as the ones who learn and who receive guidance, stubbornness and pride prevent learning. Members of my family often exclaim with frustration how stubborn I am when I refuse to be shown how to do something or learn from them. Being stubborn closes our minds and hearts. It is an unhelpful trait but can also be a sin, one of the psalmist’s transgressions, perhaps, which gets in the way of following God’s path. Ps 25 shows us a psalm reflecting both our longing to follow the Lord and our sin that needs forgiving. How often are our prayers a real mixture of praise, a surrender of our lives to God, and confession of our sins of “negligence, weakness and our own deliberate fault”. The psalms bring comfort that God has heard it all before!
The description of God’s “way” reminds us that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life”, and that the very early Christians were called “the people of the Way”. What can we learn through this pandemic that will transform the way we live and worship that may reflect more truly the image of Christ?