God the Great Teacher

"Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do I wait all the day" Psalm 25:4,5.

There is one feature in true religion perhaps not much insisted upon, but not the less real and genuine; which is this, that all true religion brings the soul into vital and immediate contact with God. False religion on the other hand only sets the soul at a distance from him. We see this peculiar feature of vital godliness very much developed in the Psalms, and in other parts of Holy Scripture, where the saints of God breathe forth their desires after the Lord. The desire of their souls to get near to God, to have special dealings with the Majesty on high, to receive mercy from his gracious hands, to be blessed with manifestations of his favour, watered with the dew of his grace, and nourished as with marrow and fatness by the smiles of his countenance, shines forth very conspicuously in the Word of truth. How all these breathings after God, which you see so clearly traced out in the Psalms and other devotional parts of God’s Word, establish the truth of what I was just saying, that true religion, vital godliness, bring the soul into close and personal contact with God! In opposition to this, there is no mark stamped upon false religion more evidently and plainly than this, that it sets up a false god, an idol god; not perhaps a wood or stone representation, but a god adapted to the carnal mind, and suitable to the natural heart, in a word, such a god as we see in all ages blind, fallen man has worshipped. Thus were you to analyse and examine all false religion, whatever its name or nature, you would find this feature of death stamped upon it, that it sets up a false god for the true God, a false faith for true faith, and a false righteousness for true righteousness; and thus worships an imaginary, an idol god, instead of the true and living God, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we may be well assured, that nothing short of the work and teaching of God in the heart can ever pull down this false god and set up in its place "the only true God, and Jesus Christ" whom he has sent (Jn.17:3).

See in the words before us how the Psalmist breathes forth his soul unto God; how he draws near to the throne of the Majesty on high, and finding some access of soul to the ear of him who bows down and listens to the cry of the destitute, cries out in the simplicity of his heart, as though he could not live unless he received an answer to his petition, "Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do I wait all the day." In looking at these words I shall, with God’s blessing, endeavour, I. First, to trace out the breathings of the longing soul vented forth in the words, "Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me." II. Secondly, the source of these heart breathings, inward desires and spiritual longings. "For you are the God of my salvation." III. And, thirdly, how David was found in a posture, wherein these blessings were to be communicated to his soul.

I. First, to trace out the breathings of the longing soulvented forth in the words, "Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me."

1. "Show me your WAYS, O Lord The very circumstance of the Psalmist breathing out these words from the bottom of his heart, shows that he was well convinced in his own mind of the utter inability of man, except by divine teaching, to find out the ways of God, or to receive them with that approbation and acquiescence, whereby alone we can enter into their beauty and blessedness. For certainly had there been any innate power or wisdom whereby he could have brought this knowledge into his own soul, it would have been at best but hypocrisy to ask God to do it for him. But he was well convinced, from deep and painful experience, that the ways of God, as the Scripture speaks, are out of sight. "Your way," he says elsewhere, "is in the sea, and your path in the great waters, and your footsteps are not known" (Psalm.77:19). Well did he know and feel that there was a veil of ignorance and blindness spread over his eyes by nature, which concealed the heavenly ways from his view. He felt therefore, that it was only as God was pleased to show him those ways, that he had any power to see or receive them as the ways of God, any inward approbation of their blessedness, or any bowing down and resignation unto them, when they crossed his own natural thoughts and inclinations.

1. The ways of God then are, first, ways of infinite WISDOM. Indeed, they can be no other. How do we judge of the wisdom of man? By the words he speaks, but more especially by the actions he performs. The ways of God, therefore, must be ways of infinite wisdom, because he is the infinitely wise God. But his wisdom is diametrically opposite to our own. We read therefore, that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God," (1 Cor.3:19) and we read also that the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world. But though upon these ways the marks of infinite wisdom are stamped, yet the wisdom is such that they are out of the sight of man, until they are brought down into the scope of his spiritual vision, and the wisdom stamped upon and running through them is made known to his soul by divine teaching. In order to understand the wisdom of God’s ways, we must ourselves be made a partaker of divine wisdom; as the apostle speaks, "But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Cor.2:16) Only, therefore, as we have the mind of Christ, and possess a measure of the wisdom from above, can we enter into the wisdom of the ways of God.

Now look at the wisdom of God, in the way of salvation. What a wise way it is! How stamped with the marks of infinite wisdom it is, that not a single attribute of God’s justice should be tarnished, and yet that sinful man be saved; that justice should not suffer nor be diminished, and yet mercy have her full sway. But in order to enter into the wisdom of God in the way of salvation, we must have a measure of heavenly wisdom let down into our soul, so that we may see this wisdom of God in a mystery as it were with the eyes of God.

2. But God’s ways also are ways of infinite MERCY. Of course, when I speak of the ways of God, I mean the ways of God towards his people. But this mercy, as stamped upon all the ways of God, is not for the most part evident in them until we come to see these ways laid open to our view, as full of mercy to us.

The way in which the Lord is now leading you may be a way most trying and painful to your mind, so that at times you may see in this way neither wisdom nor mercy. It may be so hidden out of your sight, or so contradictory to your own judgement and feelings, and to the desires of your own heart, that in the darkness of your mind you may do nothing but rebel against it. But the Lord’s ways, nevertheless, are those of infinite wisdom. When you are led to see the ways of God in his past dealings with you, can you not look back and see that those very ways, which at the time seemed anything but those of wisdom and mercy, were still really full of both? The very ways which seemed at the time so confused, that it appeared impossible for the hand of God to be in them, we can now see bear the clearest and plainest marks of the broad fingers of deity. Thus may we not hope for the future, that as the ways of God as regards the past were stamped with wisdom and mercy, so the present and the future will also be clearly stamped with marks of the same?

3. But again, the ways of God are ways of FAITHFULNESS. He is a God who cannot lie; he is faithful to his Word; faithful to his covenant; and faithful to his promise. This covenant faithfulness is a most blessed attribute of the Lord. Oh, what a strong refuge for the soul, amid all the fluctuations of time, all the changeability of daily circumstances, and all the wanderings of an unstable heart, to feel that God is unchanging and unchangeable, and that with him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.

4. But again, these ways, though they bear these blessed marks upon them, yet are for the most part OUT OF SIGHT. They are so elevated above the reach of human understanding, and are so peculiarly the ways of God himself, that, except to the believing eye, they are lost as it were in the heights of heaven.

Now it was this circumstance above all others which made the Psalmist breathe forth that sincere and simple desire, "Show me your ways, O LORD," as though he would say, "Lord, make these ways that have been so trying, so painful, and so perplexing, plain and clear to my soul. Let me have some bright and decisive evidence that these ways are indeed ways of wisdom, mercy, and faithfulness. Oh! let me feel that though these ways may be so painful for my feet to walk in, so contradictory to my reasoning mind, and so completely out of the sight of my speculating eye, yet let me so see them by the eye of faith, that I may feel a solemn acquiescence in, and holy approbation of them." To have these desires in the soul is certainly beyond all the power of the creature; it is a religion completely out of the sight of the carnal mind, and out of the grasp of anyone but those in whose heart the Spirit of God is at work.

2. "Teach me your PATHS."The path is in some measure different from the way, narrower, more intricate apparently more confined. Compare for instance the highway with a path across the fields; the one is broad, and the other narrow. Thus the Psalmist would seemingly make a distinction between the ways of the Lord and the paths of the Lord; theWAYS of the Lord being the ways of God’s dealings with us, those, so to speak, broader ways in which he himself walks; but the PATHS being those narrower and more intricate channels in which he leads his people. If this view be not fanciful, the ways would be those of wisdom, mercy, and faithfulness in which God moves; and paths, thepaths of personal Christian experience, in which the children of God walk. God’s movements are ways because they are expansive and extensive; worthy of the broad movements of an infinite Being; but the paths wherein a child of God walks are narrow, because he himself is a creature with a narrow foot to walk in them.

But you will perhaps catch my meaning better if I open the subject more fully. Thus we read, "There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen;" (Job 28:7) and again, "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day." (Prov.4:18) This path then is a path in which none walk but those who are taught, specially taught of God.

1. We may safely lay down, that to walk in FAITH, as Enoch walked with God, is a path in which God leads the soul to walk. So again, we may say, that to walk in a sweet and blessed HOPEof interest in Christ gladdening and cheering the soul onward, is a path in which a godly soul walks. And again, where there is love felt in the soul towards the Lord Jesus Christ, we may say that to walk in LOVEis a path of life in which the redeemed walk. Here then, we see at once that the path of faith, hope, and love, is the path in which the redeemed walk.

2. Again, it is a path of SELF-DENIAL, for if a man does not take up his cross and deny himself, he cannot be, according to the Lord’s own declaration, a disciple of Jesus Christ. He must walk, therefore, in a path of self-denial, in order to be made and manifested a true and accepted follower of the Lamb.

3. Again, it is a path of TRIBULATION; for we read that it is through much tribulation we are to enter the kingdom. If we have no tribulation, we certainly lack one scriptural evidence of those who enter the kingdom of God.

4. It is a path also of TEMPTATION; for the Lord’s people for the most part are a tempted, tried and plagued people.

5. It is also a path of much OPPOSITION, for the world hates vital godliness; and what is worse, our carnal mind hates it too. We could do with the enmity of the world outside us, if we had not the enmity of the carnal mind within us. A few words from outside do not much hurt us; words from within cut deeply. One traitor in the garrison can do more harm than a host of foes.

6. Again, it is a path of PRAYER, for the Lord leads his people into those supplications and desires after himself which specially mark the out-pouring of the Spirit.

7. It is also a path of WATCHFULNESS, for unless we watch continually, we shall soon be entangled in some snare of Satan.

8. It is a path also of MEDITATION; for we have to meditate on God’s dealings with the soul, both in providence and, in grace, as well as on his blessed Word of Truth.

9. And it is a path of COMMUNION WITH GOD, for in this lies the main secret of vital godliness, the true mark of heart-felt religion.

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