Teach me, O Lord: A Meditation on Psalm 119:33-40

 

There is an old maxim sometimes attributed to St. Augustine and St. Anselm, that goes something like this, “I do not understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand.”  It highlights a concept found throughout Holy Scripture, including the Psalmody for this week.  The selection is short, and reads like this from the KJV (emphasis added):

Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole heart.

Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.

Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

What’s repeated over and over again in this Psalm, is the acknowledgment that all we have, from our intellect to our whole lives, begin with the initiative of God.  We affirm with the Psalmist that we are the ones in need of teaching, of understanding, of being sent, and being turned away.  All our thoughts and deeds, without God’s initiative, are wasted efforts and vanity.  Only when He teaches and inclines us toward His will, do we find the heights and depths of beauty, righteousness, purity, and life.  Here we are reminded, that it is not we who teach or motivate God, but He who teaches and motivates us.

This is a remarkably important point for modern people to wrestle with.  In our time as children of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, many are abused of the idea that they are their own masters, and that they are the ones who hold the keys of knowledge, wisdom, and power.  Too many politicians and philosophers, teachers and professors, pastors and laity, delude themselves into thinking that they are the measure of all things.  We are so inclined to pride and hubris, that we measure and judge the world according to our own standards, and become angry with our neighbor when they do not help us accomplish our ends.  We dream up schemes and theories, and then teach them as immutable truth.  We prop up our ignorance for all to see, casting it about on college campuses, radio and television, social media, blogs, and endless outlets.  And when we are shown for the fools we are, we lash out at those who identify our flaws, and demand to be respected and tolerated, no matter how stupid and destructive we may be.  We are quick to make ourselves into gods, and when the universe laughs us to scorn, we shake our tiny fists at the cosmos, demanding that it bow to us.  We call our time an age of reason and science, but it is a time of disbelief, vice, self absorption, and endless prating.  We say much, and mean little; we plan much, and accomplish next to nothing.  In our vanity we have brought forth vanity, making the world reflect our idiocy through violence, waste, abuse, and destruction.  We prefer to understand so that we may believe, and having started our human enterprise from inside our own darkness and corruption, find ourselves so depraved that we are unable to either believe or understand.  Our darkness nears totality, and the best our society can recommend for the despair and desperation of children and adults alike, is more mind altering drugs and vapid social distractions.  Vanity begets vanity, and we are steeped in it.

God calls us to a different path.  Rather than starting from our own darkness and seeking light, He calls us to begin in His Light which banishes our darkness.  He sends His Word to teach us what we were incapable of knowing or finding, so that we might understand not only who God is, but who we are, and His whole creation.  He teaches us that we are fallen, and in need of salvation that comes to us from outside our corrupted selves.  He shows us His ways of beauty, purity, holiness, righteousness, love, mercy, and compassion, which penetrate our hatred, malice, lust, and idolatry.  He inclines our ears to hear Him, rather than the cacophony of wickedness we collectively spew into the air.  He turns us away from evil, that we may be guided to the good.  He pulls us away from our own condemnation, that we may live in Him.

As the season of Epiphany, or the season of light and illumination, moves ever closer to Lent, it behooves us to remember where light and life come from.  There is only one Light of the World, which no darkness could overcome.  There is only one source of purity and truth, whose Word become flesh and dwelt among us, and whose glory we behold as the only Son of the Father.  May the Light of Christ illumine our darkness, teach us His ways, give us His faith, draw us to repentance, and keep us from condemnation.  And with the host of saints and martyrs who have come before us, and the saints and martyrs yet to come, may we believe the Eternal Word of God, that we may understand what a great salvation we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.