Help Me Understand

One of the main goals of a teacher is to help their students understand the material and its application. It isn’t enough for them to just “know” – they need to understand. So, what does it mean to truly understand? The definition of understand is:

📝 to grasp the meaning, reasonableness, significance, or explanation of something

📝 to be thoroughly familiar with the character and propensities of

📝 to have thorough or technical acquaintance with or expertness in the practice of

📝 to accept as a fact or truth or regard as plausible without utter certainty

In Psalm 119, David requests the following:

Help me understand the meaning of your commandments,
    and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.

Let’s briefly unpack David’s request.

🍎 David asks God to help him understand God’s commandments. David knows only God can provide him the explanation and teachings he needs to truly understand.

🍎 David doesn’t just want to KNOW God’s commandments; instead, David asked God to help him understand the MEANING of His commandments. David wants to understand the purpose and explanations behind God’s commandments. It isn’t enough for David to be told – David wants to understand the purpose.

🍎 Why does David want to know the meaning or the purpose or intent behind the commandments of God? So, he can truly reflect, think, and mediate on all the wonderful deeds of God. Understanding the MEANING of God’s commandments will help David to come to know God better. And knowing God better will help David to better mediate on all that God has done for him.

We will never be able to understand God and his commandments without God helping us. How could we as mortal, finite, and limited beings understand Yahweh – the Self Existent One or El Olam – the Eternal God or El Shaddai – God Almighty without God Himself teaching us. Only God can teach us His ways and only God can help us understand Him better. But God wants that and He wants us to want that too. He wants us to crave to know him better like David. He wants to help us understand. After all, it is what a good teacher strives for – students gaining true understanding.

When we turn to God and ask Him to help us understand His commandments, He will answer. He will help us better understand Him and His ways? And what will our natural reaction be? Praise. Worship. Devotion. Mediation. We will come to see all the wonderful deeds of God and come to understand how much He has done, is doing, and will do for us. If you feel lost and can’t seem to find your way to God – all you have to do is ask. The best of teachers are always anxiously waiting for their students to ask them questions because questions indicate an open heart and mind. Questions demonstrate three key things:

✏️ Acknowledgment the student does not know or understand everything.

✏️ Willingness of the student to learn and grow.

✏️ Level of trust students have in teacher to help them.

Those are both traits God expects His follower to demonstrate.

So, let’s follow David’s example and become better students for God. Let us humbly ask God – the creator of the universe and Savior of our souls – to help us understand the meaning of His ways. God will help us. And in doing so, we will grow to learn more about God and His wonderful deeds. #TheMasterTeacher #GodsPupils