Day 13 - Monday, March 14
Title: TEACH ME YOUR WAY
Scripture: Psalm 86
Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!
Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long.
Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
And attend to the voice of my supplications.
In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,
For You will answer me.

Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
Nor are there any works like Your works.
All nations whom You have made
Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
And shall glorify Your name.
For You are great, and do wondrous things;
You alone are God.

Teach me Your way, O Lord;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And I will glorify Your name forevermore.
For great is Your mercy toward me,
And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

O God, the proud have risen against me,
And a mob of violent men have sought my life,
And have not set You before them.
But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Oh, turn to me, and have mercy on me!
Give Your strength to Your servant,
And save the son of Your maidservant.
Show me a sign for good,
That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,
Because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Poetry :
Trappists, Working
by Thomas Merton

Now all our saws sing holy sonnets in this world of
     timber
Where oaks go off like guns, and fall like cataracts,
Pouring their roar into the wood’s green well.

Walk to us, Jesus, through the wall of trees,
And find us still adorers in these airy churches, 
Singing our other Office with our saws and axes.
Still teach Your children in the busy forest,
And let some little sunlight reach us, in our
       mental shades, and leafy studies.

When time has turned the country white with grain
And filled our regions with the thrashing sun,
Walk to us, Jesus, through the walls of wheat
When our two tractors come to cut them down: 
Sow some light winds upon the acres of our spirit,
And cool the regions where our prayers are reapers,
And slake us, Heaven, with Your living rivers.

UNITE MY HEART

The best-selling book of all time is the Bible. In second place is The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan’s allegory of the Christian life in which the believer is portrayed as walking on a journey through life, encountering opportunities, temptations, and challenges on their way toward the Heavenly City.

The metaphor of life as a journey is common in Scripture. Wisdom is portrayed in Proverbs as a path to walk—the way of wisdom vs. the way of folly. More generally, God leads His people in the way of life: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21). St. Paul urges believers to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1), for “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

I’m learning to take this kind of language seriously. All too often I’ve thought of my life in ways that are static and passive, as if I’m sitting still while life goes by around me. In fact, however, whether I recognize it or not, I’m a pilgrim in progress: I’m going somewhere and becoming someone, step by step, as a result of the choices and decisions I make each day.

And so are you.

And if we are pilgrims, it makes sense, from time to time, to take stock of our journey, to think and pray about where we’ve been, where we’re headed, and where we are now.

Artist Piotr Stachiewicz describes the subject of his painting as a pilgrim in prayer—specifically, praying the words of what we call the Lord’s Prayer. That is, indeed, an appropriate prayer for pilgrims, as it touches each of the pilgrim’s basic concerns: mercy for where we’ve been (“forgive us our trespasses”), protection for where we’re headed (“lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”), and provision for where we are now (“give us today our daily bread”).

Praying in Lent

Lent is a good time for pilgrims to pull off the path, climb to where they can gain some perspective on their journey, and pray.

Psalm 86 provides an appropriate model. Like the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 86 engages our past, present, and future. In its words, expressing every bit of the passionate earnestness Stachiewicz portrays in his painting, the pilgrim David cries out “all day long” for God’s mercy. Reviewing the past, he celebrates God’s forgiveness and deliverance. Anticipating the future, he asks for God’s protection and blessing over the dangers and opportunities ahead. Repeatedly throughout, David seasons his requests with expressions of settled confidence that God is good, loving, and ever ready to answer such prayers—conveyed well in the repeated chorus of today’s musical setting of the Psalm:

The LORD is forgiving and good
Abounding in love and slow to anger
The LORD, He is gracious and kind
His faithfulness overspilling our lives
And great is His compassion

Unite my Heart

What particularly strikes me is David’s prayer for the present (verse 11):

Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.

David understandably asks for direction, that he might walk in truth—the right path, the one that actually leads to God and the life God has created him to live. But he doesn’t stop there; he needs more than simply knowing where to go next, as important as that is. He needs God to enable him to actually walk that path.

“Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

The term for “unite” here carries the idea of binding into one, making something undivided and single. As some translations render it, “Give me an undivided heart.” The Bible’s notion of the “heart” includes more than just our emotions. It’s the center of our personality, the core of our character—our emotions, yes, but also our thinking, our values, our loyalties, our will, and our affections.

But David does not simply ask for an integrated personality. His request is that his heart be pulled together into a very specific focus: to fear Your name—an expression in Scripture for worshiping God. To fear the Lord means to honor Him above all else, to submit to His sovereignty and authority and leading in all of my life—to acknowledge that He’s God and I’m not, and that all I am and have and do comes ultimately from Him and belongs to Him.

It's when God is the center of my life and everything else finds its place in relation to Him. He’s the beginning and the end of my life’s journey. And my place today is with Him, walking with Him, along His path of life.

Like David, my heart tends to be divided: unsettled, pulled apart, confused—in the words of James 1:8, “double-minded and unstable in all [my] ways.” My attention is distracted and my affections are diffused. I need God to pull my heart together into focus in Him, that I may truly hear His voice and eagerly walk with Him today.

Pull my heart together, Lord, that I may see you clearly and walk every step with You at the center of my life..

One of my Biola University students, Carlie Childers, cites “Psalm 86:11-13” at the conclusion of her email messages. I recently asked about the significance of these verses to her. With her permission, I conclude with her response:

As I was driving back to campus one evening, I looked two lanes over to see a very dusty semi-truck. Someone had written "Psalm 86:11-13" by erasing the dust with their fingers. Because I did not want to forget this passage, I began to sing "Psalm 86:11-13" aloud to the Lord. Despite not knowing its contents, I assumed this passage would contain some form of worship or reason to praise God. Upon my return to Biola, I opened my Bible to Psalm 86. I then realized that this was the same Psalm I shared with my non-believing roommate when she had hit "rock bottom" months prior. Teaching her about Jesus' compassionate, forgiving, and good nature through Psalm 86 and Luke 5 was the most alive I had ever felt. This moment, along with a few other pivotal experiences, was a confirmation of my desire to teach people about God. Psalm 86:11-13 is a prayer that I constantly have on my heart. I want to be taught to walk in the truth, so that I can teach and share the truth. I want to have a heart that only serves one master: Jesus Christ. I want to proclaim the truth, testify of God's goodness, and praise His name forever. Psalm 86:11-13 inspires me to live in light of my calling as a means to glorify God and impact the world.

Dr. David Horner
Professor of Theology and Philosophy
Division of Biblical and Theological Studies
Talbot School of Theology

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.