“Teachability”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, May 1, 2025
Psalm 119: 33-40 (Forward, p. 3) CEV p. 630
A desire and an eagerness to learn is one of the most important and fundamental qualities of a disciple. In fact, the very notion and underpinning of being a disciple was that you spent a concerted time with the teacher, learning from him and absorbing his teachings, not only through his words but also from his example and overall lifestyle.
We find a lot of this in today’s section from Psalm 119 as pertaining to the psalmist and his relationship with God:
-he longs for God’s teachings (verse 40).
-he asks for God’s help in understanding them (verse 34).
-he asks God to point out the rules He has laid out (verse 33).
-he asks God to direct his life and want to obey Him (vs. 35-36).
-he asks God to take away his foolish desires (verse 37).
And can we not say that a great deal of this also applies to us and God? Should we not also long for His teachings, endeavour to understand them, and seek to be directed by them? And should we not also ask for His specific help in taking away our foolish desires and pointing where we go astray? I think that our psalmist’s firm resolve should also be the resolve, the intention, of each of our lives. I pray that we too, like him, will be fully teachable. Thanks be to God.
Forward notes: “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; I shall keep it with all my heart” (verses 33-34).
“One evening during my first year of college, I was sitting in the dorm common room, struggling with a physics problem. A senior physics major was seated at the next table, and I asked him for help. I arrogantly explained that I understood the concepts just fine but was having issues
solving this particular question. He looked at the question and then back at me and said, ‘You don’t really understand the concept if you can’t work the problems,’ then he showed me what I was doing wrong.
“Holy Scripture is not given to us as something to be grappled with as a mere academic exercise. It is meant to be inscribed on our hearts. It is intended to be lived out each day. The invitation to keep God’s law is an invitation to holiness. We are meant to ‘work the problem’—we are meant to get stuck. We are meant to seek help from God’s grace and love each day so that, over time, we may embody that love more and more.”
Moving Forward: “How are you doing in truly understanding the concepts of God’s love and grace?”