Psalms 25:8: “Good and upright is Lord, therefore He will teach us His way.”

Because God is a good God He will teach sinners in the way? I guess that makes sense, but what makes more sense is the word for good in Hebrew which is tov and means to be in harmony. God is wanting to teach sinners in the way so that they will be in harmony with Him.

 

A relationship is not very enjoyable or fulfilling if you are out of harmony with the other person. That is what makes the buddy movies so enjoyable. To see two or more people working together to accomplish some goal. Say they are portraying police officers. They work together, solve crime together, joke with each other, good naturally tease each other and all that makes the movie entertaining. Of course there are moments when they are not in harmony with each other. The movie becomes tense and you anxiously await that moment that you know will come when the “buddies” work through their disharmony and are again working together and you are suddenly finding the movie fulfillling again.

Within the realm of God there is perfect harmony and thus great joy and pleasure. However, within our natural realm that harmony does not always exist and it is very hard to know the joy of the Lord. Sinners are sinners because they seek their own lust and desires and corrupt the flow of harmony with God and others. God seeks to teach sinners the way so that they will be in harmony. Like parents will be broken hearted when they see their children fighting with each other and not getting along. The real joy of parenting comes when they can sit back and enjoy seeing their children all getting along in harmony and love with each other.

 

Like in English, in Hebrew you have words that are called homonyms, words that sound identical but have two different meanings. We use these to create cute little puns. My nephew and his wife both have a PhD and in their profession they are called doctors. When together they form a paradox. We call that a pun or a word play. There are many word plays in Scripture, one such word plays are homonyms which are often used to show a relationship and create a broader meaning or understanding. This is very common in poetry like the Psalms. The word teach is usually the word Lamed, but in this case the Psalmist uses the word yoreh which sounds like the word yarah which is an archer’s word for shooting an arrow. This is meant to be a play off the word for sinner which is the word chatahim which is also an archer’s word for missing the target with the arrow.

 

God is the teacher or the yoreh, the one who shoots the arrow, the one who provides the strength and power behind the arrow and properly aims the arrow so that it won’t chatah, miss the target. When God is behind whatever we do, when we are in the center of His will, we will always hit the target and not chatah or sin. The safest, more secure place we can be is in the center of God’s will.

 

The center of God’s will is a place of complete harmony with God. Whatever you wish for, desire or long to obtain if you ask God to provide He will do it to bring the ultimate joy of being in harmony with Him and His children.

 

Tomorrow in our online Torah study we will develop this theme on purity in our prayers much further. All classes are recorded to be viewed at any time. Join us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com