Psalm 25:4-6 – Ways … Really!

Here is my literal translation of these verses:

“Cause me to know Your ways, YHVH. Train  me [in] Your paths. Cause me to travel in Your truth.  Train me because You [are] the God of my deliverance. On you I wait/hope all the day. Remember Your mercies YHVH and Your loving-kindnesses because they [are] from ages.”

“Cause me to know Your ways.”

“Your ways.”

A “way” is a very important thing.

Back when I was studying II Peter 2:15,16, I stopped to ponder this concept of “ways.” I said there: “It strikes me that this thing of a “way” is a frequent subject throughout the Bible … In fact, it is frequent. A quick perusal of Strong’s Concordance shows the words “way” and “ways” occur hundreds of times. Logically speaking, a “way” is extremely important because “ways” always lead somewhere. In order to end up at the right destination, one needs to travel in the right “way.” No matter how much a destination may be desired, one will not arrive there unless they travel in the right “way.”… No wonder the Lord admonishes us in Haggai 1:6, “Consider your ways …”

Interestingly, commenting on the Hebrew word for “way,” TWOT says, “The contrast is between the way of sin/death and the way of obedience/life. These exhaust the options available to man. Man makes his own choice but he cannot choose his own consequences … The way which one chooses determines one’s destiny.”

I think that paragraph is worth several reads.

When we would sincerely pray, “Lord, cause me to know Your ways,” that prayer should be no mindless cliché(!). When I ask Him to teach me His ways, I’m asking for life itself! To fail of His way is to die, though I live. To walk in His way is to live, though I die!

My mind is kind of reeling with the enormity of it all.

I’m always on some “way” – every minute of every day. I am actually on a path as I go about my work, stop at the grocery store, run into an old friend, have a flat tire, answer the phone, eat my supper. But what way? The Lord’s way or any other? There are only two options. As TWOT said, “These exhaust the options available man.”

We actually desperately need the Lord to help us walk in His way, because the alternative is fatal! “… The way which one chooses determines one’s destiny.”

But again this is a very practical thing because I’m doing it all day every day.

Interesting the progression in the Psalm: “…cause me to know Your ways,” “train me [in] Your paths,” “cause me to travel in Your truth,” “train me.” The word I’ve translated “train” is more than just to teach. It is the idea of someone teaching you but then staying with it to work through it with you over and over until you’ve “got” it. There’s no interest here in any simple “head” knowledge. This is intensely practical business. I not only need to “know” the right way, but I need to very specifically and deliberately incorporate that “way” into my daily life.

We see that David is quite serious in his prayer here. It is no cliché to him!

Psalm 139:23,24 is a similar prayer:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
         Try me, and know my anxious thoughts and cares;

And see if there be any wicked way in me,
         And lead me in the way everlasting.

Interesting too that Jesus said, “I am the Way …”

Interesting too that the Lord made it simple when He told us to love God and love each other; that fulfills the Law. My “way” is a way of love. Love to God and love to others. Minute by minute. All day. Every day.

I guess when I first read these verses, the enormity of it all didn’t impress me. Had I prayed the prayer then, it probably would have been at least somewhat cliché. But I don’t want it to be cliché. I want it to be real.

So let’s try it again.

“Lord, cause me to know Your ways. Train me in Your paths. Cause me to travel in Your truth. Train me.”

Really.