Psalm 119 – Lamedh

What you say goes, God,
and stays, as permanent as the heavens.
Your truth never goes out of fashion;
it’s as relevant as the earth when the sun comes up.
Your Word and truth are dependable as ever;
that’s what you ordered—you set the earth going.
If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so,
I would have given up when the hard times came.
But I’ll never forget the advice you gave me;
you saved my life with those wise words.
Save me! I’m all yours.
I look high and low for your words of wisdom.
The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me,
but I’m only concerned with your plans for me.
I see the limits to everything human,
but the horizons can’t contain your commands!

Psalm 119:89-96 (The Message)

One of the jobs of a dad is to teach his children. When a child and dad spend time together, teaching often occurs. The dad teaches his child about life as he has experienced it. The teaching is done naturally, in everyday activities. As the child works alongside his/her dad, he/she learns how to do whatever the dad is doing, such as, mow the lawn, fish, bake, etc. The parent/child relationship is an inherently master/apprentice relationship. God designed it this way.

God is not only our Father, He is our greatest teacher. One of the marks of a great teacher is his/her experience in his/her field of study. Since God is the creator of you and me and all that is on earth and in the Universe, He is the ultimate master teacher. What He teaches us can be trusted as true. God’s Word and truth shows His faithfulness, and “the faithfulness of God is displayed not only in His Word but also in His works. It extends to all generations and is seen in the order and precision of nature (MacDonald, 2016).” God needs to be the teacher we go to first to learn about life and how to navigate it.

The Hebrew letter, lamedh means to teach and to learn. The design of the letter is a mergence of the letter vav and the bent kaph. According to Raskin (2003), the vav represents godliness and the bent kaph here represents God as teacher. “But the word lamed, the commandment to teach, is not directed merely toward school teachers, it is a directive for every individual. Every Psalm 119 - Lamedhperson can influence his or her friend or student, and every parent has the obligation to teach his or her children the knowledge of G d, good deeds and ethics (Raskin, ibid).”

Raskin (2003) goes on to say that everyone is like a child when learning Torah. That is to say, we must approach the Torah as a child. No matter how many times we read it, we learn something new. Therefore, we are never too old to learn Torah. We can apply these same principles to the entire Bible. In fact, the Psalmist declares that the Bible is infinite when he says, I see the limits to everything human, but the horizons can’t contain your commands!

“The very best things in this world fall short of perfection and come to an end, but the Word of God is perfect and infinite. The more we get to know the Bible, the more we realize how far short we ourselves come (MacDonald, 2016).”

The Bible teaches us something new every time we read it, and it is infinite, but it is our job to read the Bible every day. We need to be good students and be teachable. After we read the Bible, we need to reflect on what God is teaching us, apply it to our personal lives and live by the wisdom God gives us through His word. Just as we read a manual and apply what it is telling us about how to put together, say a grill, we need to read the Bible and apply it to how we need to live as Christians every minute of our lives.

When we read the Bible, We are being taught by the Master Teacher!

Resources:
MacDonald, W. 2016. Believers Bible Commentary (2nd Ed.). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Raskin, A. 2003: Letters of Light. (audio book). Sichos Publishers.

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