Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: So shall I talk of thy wondrous works (Psa 119.27).
Our generation suffers a glut of information and a famine of thoughtfulness. Even amidst exploding technologies, and perhaps to some degree because of them, there runs a strong undercurrent of anti-intellectualism. Without strenuous efforts to avoid the chronic and ubiquitous distractions of cell phones, email, iPods, notebooks PC’s in WiFi hotspots, along with the older media of cable TV, radio, and newspapers, we are apt to suffer from an information overload that pushes out any significant time and mental energy for meditation in the deep things of God, while our wide and shallow knowledge of countless trivial things has never been greater.
The cultural bias against true intelligence is just as obvious in the evangelical subculture as it is in society at large. Religious worship is commonly conceived as a departure from rational thought so that one may give himself to a mindless, euphoric experience of giving praise according to feelings of the moment. The hard, mental work of grasping the truth about God’s attributes and redeeming work in Christ have nothing to do with this popular activity that fills large stadiums in so-called “mega-churches.” God alone can sort through the impure service of His people and make a final judgment, but we cannot help but wonder if He has any true worship at all from such congregations.
Ironically, a similar charge may be made towards even members of small, Reformed churches who spend next to no time in God’s Word and prayer through the week, and then come to services in their listlessness, experience no enthusiasm for God and His gospel while there, and leave with no more religious zeal than they had when they came. Sleepy sermons and sleepy hearers are the bane of such ministries. Dry church meetings tempt people to think that the mega-church drivel might be an improvement!
Our inspired text this evening suggests that
True praise is the fruit of divine illumination.
Note the cause/effect connection in the two lines of the couplet. The Scottish Psalter (1650) brings it out well:
The way of thy commandments
Make me aright to know;
So all thy works that wondrous are
I shall to others show.
The second line of our text is not so much a vow as a recognition of the inevitable result of answered prayer to the first line.
Our desire for intelligence in God’s precepts cannot be too earnest. When thus enlightened we shall not be mute. Delighted conversation will tell the dealings of Him whose name is Wonderful.1
OUR NEED OF DIVINE ILLUMINATION
“Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.” Notice several obvious things about this line. First, it is a prayer directed to God. Hearing and studying God’s Word without prayer for understanding is an offense to Him, because 1) it is a failure to recognize the infinite holiness of His Word in comparison to all other writings, 2) it is to exalt human ability far beyond any reasonable warrant, 3) it is to deny practically our sinful bias against God’s truth, and 4) it is the approach of a practical atheist. Why wouldn’t those who really believe in God ask His blessing when having contact with His Word?
Second, it asks for more than an acquaintance with God’s Word to a deep comprehension of its meaning. “Teach me thy statues” (119.26) leads to “make me to understand the way of thy precepts” (119.27), or, “help me to understand what your precepts mean!” (NET). Anyone can read and have some intellectual apprehension of the words of Scripture, but only those taught by God in the inner man by the Holy Spirit come to see the spiritual light of Christ in the biblical message, and to love His glory in it.
Third, this prayer for divine illumination is a dominant concern among many petitions (cf. Psa 27.11; 86.11; 119.12; 143.8-10). Thus, even the human author of these divinely-inspired compositions known as the Psalms implicitly confesses his spiritual deafness and natural stupidity in divine things. In this he sets an example for us.
Reader, before you hear [a sermon], remember it is God’s prerogative to open your ears: “My ears you have opened,” Psa 40.6. There is a thick film in your ears naturally, which hinders your hearing; your ears are stopped up so that sermons cannot get through. Now God alone with His syringe can dissolve the wax congealed there, and break through the skin, by which you may come to hear and live. Remember that the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, the Lord has made them both. Therefore beg Him to open your eyes, that you may see His beautiful face in the mirror of the Word; and to open your ears, that you may hear His lovely voice in the Word; and to open your heart, that you may receive grace from Him through the Word. Say as David, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths” (Psa 25.4). “Make me to understand the way of Your precepts, so shall I talk of Your wondrous works” (Psa 119.27). And do not be discouraged, either at the mysteriousness of the Word, or at your own dullness; for He that made the lock can give You a key that will fit all its rooms.2
This divinely-inspired petition is meant as a great encouragement to us, for what God moves us to ask, He obviously intends to grant, when we ask in faith according to His revealed will.
OUR RESPONSE OF DIVINE ADORATION
The AV renders the second line, “So shall I talk of thy wondrous works.” The word “so” connects this idea to the first, as an effect flowing from the cause. The Hebrew grammar “indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.”3 The psalmist feels his moral obligation along with his natural inability to do this, and so he pleads with God to give the requisite understanding for the ability and motivation to fulfill the duty.
The Hebrew verb means both “talk” (with the connotation of praise4) and “meditate” (Psa 119.15, 23, same Hebrew word), with context governing the discernment of its sense in a given instance. In English we have two distinct words, but this one Hebrew word merges both concepts. “It implies deep and heartfelt reflection expressed or unexpressed.”5 Whichever word translators choose, the other is implied.6 Meditation inspires praise, and there is no true praise apart from meditation.
There also seems to be the implication of speaking to other people, whether saints or sinners, about the deep things God teaches us. Whether for the edification of our brethren or the evangelization of spiritual outsiders, we need God’s help to speak well. As Charles Bridges said:
Often do we complain of restraint in religious conversation. But the prayer—Make me to understand while I talk—will bring “a live coal to our lips” from the altar of God—“Our mouths will then speak out of the abundance of the heart” (Matt 12.34), and “minister grace to the hearers” (Eph 4.29). Humility, teachableness, simplicity, will bring light into the understanding, influence the heart, “open the lips,” and unite every member that we have in the service and praise of God.7
Brethren, let us advance in this grace also by appealing to our generous God for the blessing highlighted in this verse. In holy meetings, our petitions should take a corporate form out of brotherly concern for all, “Make us to understand the way of Your precepts,” and in our private prayers, we pray especially for ourselves. When God hears and answers these prayers, then we will meditate/talk with more holy understanding and boldness of His amazing works. True praise and testimony will be the visible fruit of the Holy Spirit’s inner work of soul-illumination. We need not choose between mindless enthusiasm and dry orthodoxy. The Lord is well able to grant His people the earnest “tongue of the learned,” and thus make us like Jesus Christ Himself (Isa 50.4). May it be so for His glory. Amen.
Notes
1. Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, c. 1878.
2. Puritan George Swinnock, Works I.153, paraphrased.
3. NET Bible notes.
4. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains #8488
5. Plumer, in loc.
6. TWOT #2255.
7. Charles Bridges, Commentary on Psalm 119.
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