“teach me oh Lord…Give me understanding…direct me…turn my heart…”
Teach: a teacher drills things into you. Especially at the kindergarten, and junior school levels, you are drilled into learning certain things like counting, the alphabet, the multiplication tables etc. But this drilling, although very redundant to us when we are learning, has the effect, that for the life of us, we will never forget the alphabet, or counting. Can anyone, who has had a basic education, ever say they don’t know how to count, or how to say A, B, C up to Z? It becomes a Habit.
Give understanding: At the kindergarten level, you are not required to understand many things. It is better to just assimilate things as they are brought your way. But you can’t keep learning by repetition, or getting things by-heart. As you grow older, you are required to understand concepts. We ourselves start asking questions, and the teacher listens to our questions, answers them, and helps us understand.
Direct: After school, no one will ever bother to worry about whether you understand anything they say. But really good lecturers and professors in college usually encourage us to learn for ourselves. When we do not understand certain things, instead of just giving us the answer to our questions, they direct us to the source of knowledge, the book, or a person, and our own research will then not only help us understand what we had a doubt in, but we will, in the process of reaching that understanding, also learn many more things. At this stage, the teacher becomes a facilitator. When we discover something for ourselves, there is a sense of achievement, and the advantage of something staying in our minds is more when we take the trouble to do research.
The Lord is like a teacher in our spiritual life. In our early stages of spirituality, He is a kindergarten teacher, who only gives us the basics. As we grow, we have more doubts, more questions, and He answers them for us. As we grow even more, He begins to let us discover for ourselves, what we do not understand. When the answer from God does not come as soon as we ask, it may be possible that God is treating us not like a child, but as a college graduate!
Turn: having said all this, the psalmist wants more. A teacher or professor will only go so far in our quest for knowledge. But our parents will MAKE us do things for our good. The psalmist doesn’t want God as a mere teacher. He wants Him as a parent, who when a child errs, will not be content with telling them it is wrong, but will actively make the child stop the wrong deed, and do what is right. That is why the psalmist wants the Lord to TURN his heart. Ask God to be your teacher. But also ask Him to be your father.
No comments:
Post a Comment