Psalms 119:99 The More Teachers The More Insight

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. Once again, we get to dig into these amazing verses in the Mem section of the 119th Psalm, and today we're going to get some counsel. And it sounds a little prideful when you first hear it, but I can assure you, the amazing thing that you'll see within this verse is unbelievable, and I'm so glad that you're joining me here today. We'll go ahead and read it in English, realizing this would be the third verse, the third anointing being counsel, and the verse reads in English, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.

And wow, as you look at this, there's some really cool things to note in the Hebrew version of it, is to begin with, the word that is translated understanding is not the word that's used as understanding throughout the Psalm, as bina is the understanding we normally see, but here we see a different kind of understanding which has more to do with insight. And another way that you could translate this, and I think in my opinion as I've studied it and thought about it, that it would probably be better translated, I have more insight because of all my teachers. In fact, you could even say I have more insight because all are my teachers. That word all is critical there, that's in there, and all are teachers. And in a way, when you think about it, I think what the psalmist teaches, and certainly the Jewish sages teach, that you can learn something from everyone.

Everybody has gifts. Everybody is a teacher. Sometimes they're teaching you what to do, I mean, what not to do, but nonetheless, we can learn from every single person, and every single person has unique ways that they reflect God that only they can. And so, that type of insight is really phenomenal, especially when you put it together with the fact that he said, For thy testimonies are my meditation. Again, when he says meditation here, it's the same word that he used to discuss, to muse, to—it's a different meditation than is in the first Psalm or than is in the book of Joshua.

This is more of a digging around, talking, processing type of meditation. And so, if you consider that if you're digging around in somebody's stories, digging around in their testimony, the amount of insight that you can get will be phenomenal understanding, phenomenal insight as you learn from more and more people's stories, right? And for example, you know, I'll never forget when I got to dig around in all these stories when I was at the Association for Christian Counselors events.

I've done an episode on that before where, you know, I ask everybody, you know, like it says in 2 Corinthians 1, you know, the God of all comfort comforts us that we may comfort others. How does that play out in your life? And then I heard a hundred, because I interviewed a hundred people that weekend, stories of how God had played out in our life. Do you mind the insight that I received? It's like unbelievable that I had so much insight based on the meditation of the discussions and digging around in all these people's stories.

So that's one thing to think about. And the other is that, you know, I teach or maybe they teach me special needs at the church that I work at, and we've done that for about 20 years. And, you know, one time we had this student, he was in a wheelchair, and he didn't have any vocal skills. And quite honestly, from my perspective, a lot of times when I started teaching, he would start moaning. And I would hear this, his name was Joshua, and you would begin to teach, and we were doing this walk through the Bible thing, and all the hand signs that we were hoping everybody would learn, but he didn't have much motor use of his hands, legs, anything. And he would just sit there and I'd hear these noises. It sounded like he was in horrible pain. But interestingly, every week his mom would come and pick him up and tell us how much that Joshua loved this class. And of course, from my perspective, I was like, how could that be happening? Because he just seems like he's so miserable when he's sitting there. But nonetheless, you know, this went on until the very first Christmas party.

And we always, when we're doing a Christmas party, we have all the students, you know, kind of line up, and we do one of our lessons so that the families can see, you know, what we do in class and get a chance to see what their students are learning. And so, almost like right on cue, as we began to go through the walk through the Bible version that we were doing that year, Joshua starts moaning almost immediately like, ah, and I was like, Oh, man, of all times. And about that time, his mom says to him, I'll never forget it. She says, Joshua, it's not your turn.

And like a giant flash goes through my mind, like, Oh, my gosh, God, what are you teaching me here? Joshua has been trying to communicate with us all, you know, he doesn't, we don't give him a voice. And so, he doesn't have a chance to tell us anything.

He doesn't have a chance to communicate. And when she said, It's not your turn, immediately, Joshua started. So, with this new revelation, the very next lesson, I'll never forget it was, you know, the party was on a Friday, Saturday night. And so, the next Sunday morning, as soon as we got in before we started the lesson, I said, Okay, Joshua, please forgive me, because I did not realize that you were trying to tell us the lesson.

But now it's your turn. So you just go ahead and talk. And when we said that to him, guess what he took off, and he made his sounds, and he discussed it, whatever he was discussing with us. But the point that I've never ever forgotten, and I don't think I ever will is what Joshua taught me.

Right? I think I'm so smart, but I'm not learning from Joshua. Joshua is showing me that he still is very much aware of what's going on. And when I get to heaven, I'll find out what he actually was thinking about all these things other than the fact that I was obviously very proudful, prideful of the situation. So, you know, again, when we look at this verse, there's lots of ways to look at it, but I really enjoy this idea of more. And again, the Mem being the prominent verse, and so he's talking about, you know, he was going to be made more wise than his enemies, and here he's going to be made, he's going to be given more insight based on all his teachers. And if you read it that way, it's just absolutely beautiful. I have more insight, because all of my teachers and their testimonies are my meditation.

Like, wow! Think of the people's stories that you know, and the insights into who God is, and the hero of the story that he is, and the way he comes to the rescue. I mean, this is a precious, precious verse. And when it comes to counsel, I'm just giving you some counsel, learn from everybody.

That way at some point that you won't be like me with a lot of anger in your face, like, oh, wow! But anyway, it really, really fun stuff today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining in this. It is so much fun.