Psalm 25:7b-8 – More Thoughts

Once again, here is my literal translation of these verses:

“ According to Your loving-kindness may You remember me, in accordance with Your goodness, YHVH.

 Good and upright [is] YHVH, therefore He will teach sinners in the way.”

Here are some miscellaneous thoughts from these verses:

I like the phrase “in accordance with Your goodness.” The “in accordance with” in Hebrew is really literally more like “in answer to” or “in response to.” I think there’s a measure of encouragement even in that slight difference, from “in accordance with” to “in response to.” “In accordance with” is sort of sterile. It’s like God’s goodness is sort of a yardstick and we measure against it. “In answer to” just seems more personal to me. It makes God’s goodness like something living and active, which of course it is. “Remember me, in answer to Your goodness.” I like that.

Another interesting word is the “upright” of verse 8, “Good and upright [is] the Lord.” The word in Hebrew is literally “straight,” which I think is really cool. I can’t use that as my translation since saying someone is “straight” has other implications in English. In English, we can say a person is “crooked” and that is exactly the opposite of this Hebrew word, just like “crooked” would naturally be the opposite of “straight”. We’ve all heard of the man who was so crooked, when he died they couldn’t bury him, they had to screw him into the ground.(!) Being “crooked” is a really bad thing. No one likes a man who’s crooked. But in English, to be “straight” isn’t the opposite; however, in Hebrew it is. God is not crooked. He is exactly the opposite. He’s “straight” in the sense that He’s true; He’s a straight-shooter; there’s nothing “bent” about Him; you can totally count on Him; He’s always exactly what He should be. That’s what the Hebrew word means. As often is the case, there’s just no way to say that in English without adding a lot of explanation. But I love the picture. The Lord is good and straight. People frequently accuse Him of not being good, that somehow sin and its consequences are His fault. But they also accuse him of being crooked. We don’t say it in those words, but that is what they’re thinking, that He is capricious, that it’s hard telling what He might do to them next. The fact is He is neither. He is good and He is straight. He’s totally dependable.

Even the word translated “therefore” is interesting here: “…therefore He will teach sinners in the way.”   It is actually a translation of two Hebrew words tied together. What is interesting to me is that one of those words alone would have communicated “therefore,” so why compound them? I didn’t find anything in my resources. I would surmise that, as is almost always the case, compounding of terms is intended to communicate some kind of intensity or added emphasis. If that is the case then we need to read the line placing a mental emphasis on the “therefore.” Try it: “Good and upright [is] the Lord, therefore He will teach sinners in the way.” It’s almost like saying, “ Of course the Lord is good and upright, therefore, duh!, of course He will do it!” When the Lord is involved the therefore gets underlined! It’s just more of His faithfulness to be Who He is, Who He said He’d be, that He keeps His very great and precious promises. His “therefores” could always be underlined. But, for whatever reason, that is exactly what I think David does here. Something to ponder, I think.

Another interesting word is the “teach” in “…therefore He will teach sinners in the way.” Back in verses 4&5, the “to teach” Hebrew word was lamad which was more literally “to train” or “to disciple.” This is a different word for “teach,” the word yarah. The root word means literally “to throw” or “to shoot” with a strong sense of control by the subject. It is the idea of someone shooting an arrow, but it cannot be randomly; it is the idea of shooting the arrow at a very specific target. In the Hebrew way of painting mental pictures, the same word becomes one of the synonyms for “to teach.” Now that is definitely cool, is it not? Certainly a good teacher knows why they’re teaching their students, they know exactly what they want them to learn, and so their teaching is seriously like shooting an arrow at a target. And so the Lord, the Master Teacher, “will teach sinners in the way.” His intent is in no way ambiguous or unclearly defined. He picks them up, aims them carefully at the target and sends them down the path of learning.

Interesting that He specifically teaches “sinners.” It is the general Hebrew word for “sinners.” That’s probably a good thing. Not even any special kind of sinners in view here. Just your average run-of-the-mill everyday sinners. Abraham Lincoln once said about common people, “The Lord must have loved common people; he made so many of them!” Well, in view here are just common sinners. That’s good. You and I immediately know we qualify. But then if you stop and ponder the verse it is another amazing grace verse. Think about it: If it was written about us, it would say something like, “He [or she] is good and upright, therefore they will only teach the gifted and promising”. The second we think we’ve risen to something, we easily start thinking we’re above this or that. Not so with the Lord. He teaches sinners. Peter fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, I am a sinful man.” Jesus, of course, did not depart. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Instead of departing, He stayed with Simon, trained him, shot him like an arrow, and turned him into Peter, the rock. What this verse is telling us is that it wasn’t just a matter that Jesus chose to do that with Peter. What this verse is telling us is that it is the very nature of God Himself to teach sinners. That is actually another very great and precious promise to build our faith and fuel our prayers!

Finally, it is interesting that He teaches sinners “in the way.” As we studied earlier, a “way” is extremely important. Ways always lead somewhere. To choose one’s way is to choose one’s destination, whether consciously or not. And there really are only two ways in this world, the Lord’s way and any other. To choose the Lord’s way is to live, though I die. To choose any other way is to die, even though I live. But His way doesn’t come naturally to me or you. We must be taught. The bad news is that we are all a bunch of blockheads stumbling along the way to self-destruction. The good news is, for those who will but look up out of the stench and filth of their sin, our God is a God Who wants “to teach sinners in the way.” David understood that. That’s why earlier in this Psalm he said, “Cause me to know Your ways …” The leper said to Jesus, “If You are willing, You can make me clean …” And what was Jesus’ response? “I am willing. Be cleaned.” What this verse teaches us is that we don’t need to even question whether He’s willing to teach us His way. Rest assured, “He teaches sinners in the way.” Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

How much more meaning could you pack into eight Hebrew words?

More fuel for the altarfire!