You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn. Psalm 18: 28-36, NIV.
Holy God, we need You every moment of every day. As we study Your Word today, please come divinely close and speak to our hearts. In the blessed name of Jesus Christ we humbly pray. Amen.
We continue our study today with a very interesting part of this Scripture. David is saying that God is his trainer when it comes to spiritual warfare! I can think of no better trainer, than one who has fought and won the battle against a mutual contender. But what is even more interesting is that the root of this verb, depending on the form it takes, can mean Teacher (“the participle of this form”), teaching, to teach (“the intensive or factitive form”), or teachable (“the passive forms”) Old Testament Dictionary of the Key Word Study Bible! In this one word we have all the key components for learning to take place! Let us look at each for a few minutes.
Teacher. When we think of a teacher, I am sure that all kinds of mental pictures come to our minds. No doubt every person will have his or her personal snapshot of what a teacher looks like. Some will be good, and some will be not so good, while others will be, unfortunately, bad. Unfortunately, is really an understatement when we are talking about a teacher. If there is one person that should inspire positive, healthy, memories, are teachers. For different periods of our lives these are the people who have almost complete control of our minds! After our parents or guardians, they are the ones we will look up to, and from whom we will take our cues for life. We will look to them to know when a behavior is appropriate or not. We will depend upon them to direct our steps in safe paths. I can think of no better teacher than God Himself. He not only teaches, He also encourages. Even though He warns us of the pitfalls, if, through our disobedience, our steps should falter, we can be sure, that even before we ask for help, He will offer us His hand to lift us up ( Isaiah 65: 24; Psalm 40: 2)!
A good teacher teaches, by his or her life, and also by theory. The study of the incarnation thrills me to the depths of my soul! When the Father and the Son wanted to teach us about who the Father really was, they decided that it was necessary for the Son to come to our earth and model the image of the father before our very eyes! He had given us nature as a study guide, but because of sin, many of the things we read in nature’s book about God were inaccurate. People and animals began to destroy each other. The elements in nature were causing death and destruction. The Adversary began to falsify the image of God. “Then Jesus came,” and for the first time, humankind got a perfect look of the face of God! “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father,” Jesus said (John 14: 9). In His life, and death, He taught us about the love, and grace, and righteousness, of the Father! Then He left us His love letter, the Bible, for further study!
It helps when the student is teachable. While it is true, that one of the main attributes of a good teacher is the ability to inspire his or her students to learn, it is also true, that, in the final analysis, the student must decide for him or her (self) that they will accept the teachings, and learn from them. The student must be willing to be open to the lessons that the teacher is imparting, for the process of teaching to be complete. I am sure that you will agree with me that David was a teachable student. One of the attributes of a teachable person, is humility. The person has to admit that he or she does not know everything, and that there are others that know more than he or she. Surely, David’s humiliation before God, when he was approached by the prophet Nathan, speaks eloquently of his ability to be humble, and therefore, teachable.
Because David had the best Teacher, and was taught some of the most valuable lessons in life, he was strengthened to ward off the brazen darts of the evil one, because his eternal shield was ever before him (Psalm 16: 8)! Therefore, no weapons formed against him could prosper (Isaiah 54: 17)!