“Divine Education”

Psalm 119:26-27  I have declared my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes.  Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.

We enter a classroom in these verses.  The Psalmist presents himself for examination.  He puts his whole case, his qualifications and disqualifications, before God, and God hears him.

            The result of this examination is a consciousness and confession of ignorance and error.  His prayer to be taught God’s statutes, to understand the way of God’s precepts, implies ignorance of the one and departure from the other.  And he who comes away from the throne of grace with any other consciousness has been there in vain.

            His ignorance and error leads him to cry to the great Teacher for instruction.  This instruction was twofold.  First, it is intellectual—teach me Your statutes; and second it is practical—make me understand the way of Your precepts.  One thing we must remember in all of this is that the instructor is God, not man; and the instruction is not in human guesses, but in divine truth and holiness.  About 30 years ago, I was a long term substitute for an eighth grade science class.  The classes had run off the teacher that had been hired at the beginning of the year, and they had run off two or three replacements.  I was the fourth batter, and I was determined to stand my ground as I had no health insurance and desperately needed an operation.  I made it through to the end, almost being removed just before the end of the term.  One day I was called into the office, and the principal, assistant principal, and the science department head were all there with unhappy expressions on their faces.  The approved textbooks were open to the section on evolution.  A parent had complained that their child had heard me say to another student that the geological formation of the Grand Canyon could have been formed quickly by a massive hydrological catastrophe such as the flood of Noah.  The science teacher head asked whether I could find that in the book as a teacher cannot go beyond the book to answer a question.  I looked, and yes indeed it was not in there.  I have seen the Grand Canyon twice and was not thrilled either time.  The 13 year old was offended that he heard the word “Noah” come from a substitute teacher.  That substitute teacher was offended when he goes to the Grand Canyon and sees these detailed signs that speak of the billions of years that it took for the canyon to develop.  I was at Mt. St. Helens soon after the eruption back in the 1980’s.  They had no signs saying that the complete change of the landscape including a mountain that was now mostly missing took billions of years to erode away.  No, it was minutes.  All of this to say that man’s education is “guessing” and in the area of science it is guessing with the premise that there is no Creator God.   The Psalmist here says that we should meditate on God's wonderful works, and in so doing will receive a wonderful education.