"Teach Me"
- Dr. Todd R. Wright
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Here’s the good news: God stands ready to help us. The Good Shepherd is always nudging us back onto the path.
Psalm 119:33-40
September 6, 2026
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible. But that’s not why it’s worth studying.
It reads like a love poem to God’s Torah. But that’s not what makes it special.
It’s an acrostic with 176 verses divided into 22 stanzas. It’s a celebration of order and precision – enough to make the Presbyterian heart sing – but that’s not why we are drawn to it.
There’s one stanza for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The verses for today all start with the fifth letter – “heh”. That shows admiral creativity and skill, but that’s not the key, though it’s getting warmer.
So why did the folks who made up the lectionary think these verses needed to be included?
And why am I choosing them and thereby ignoring other options for today:
the Exodus text with Passover instructions;
or the Matthew text with Jesus’ advice on handling disagreements;
or Paul’s telling the Romans that the commandments are summed up (by Jesus) as:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
And why might these verses inch up your list of favorites?
I’m glad you asked! Let me try and explain by pointing to three spots in the psalm.
Here’s the thing about Hebrew words that start with the letter “heh” … scholars say:
“They convey a sense of causality. Consider the verb ‘to march.’ [In Hebrew] if one adds a heh to the beginning of that verb, ‘to march’ becomes ‘to cause to march’ or ‘to lead.’ In fact, [when] verse 35 [begins]: ‘Lead me in the path of your commandments for I delight in it,’ the psalmist is praying that God will ‘cause him to march’ along the paths that God has established.”
So the psalmist is saying, if God’s torah moves him to march, it will be a source of delight!
(I’ll have to ask Payne, who is deep into boot camp, whether he finds marching delightful!)
Heh verbs mean every verse in this stanza reinforces the plea that God would hear the psalmist’s words and in turn inspire, encourage, and enable, the psalmist to faithfulness.
That’s worth noticing, considering, and embracing!
Second, the first of these verses takes the form of a request, “Teach me.”
Consider the legacy of the teachers you’ve had – people who taught you how to bake biscuits, or change the oil, or grow things, or read sheet music, or throw a curveball. Or maybe it was more subtle – people who taught you to say please and thank you, or to be curious, or helped you discover self-confidence, or gave you permission to be a little different, or notice awe.
Kathy Kruk wrote an article in the last newsletter that talked about the impact of Mrs. Anderson who conveyed kindness and compassion as she taught about Jesus; Mr. Cork, who drew on the Bible to help junior highers manage day to day experiences; and Pat Carey, who coached the girls basketball team in the basics of basketball and how to manage emotions!
Think for a moment about your teachers.
What did they teach you? When did they teach you? How did they teach you?
In teaching you, they gave you a great gift!
Sometimes it was tossed your way casually, other times it required sustained work; sometimes you were part of group of learners, other times you were the only one singled out.
The psalmist asks, “Teach me” knowing that there are things they need to learn that only
God can teach, things that are necessary for a life well lived; things that will transform a life!
Norman Rockwell painted the picture on the cover of the bulletin – “Happy Birthday Miss Jones” – “as a tribute to his own eighth-grade teacher who had encouraged him to draw.”
I imagine he drew when he was supposed to be doing math problems, or diagraming sentences, or learning chemical formulas. I imagine he couldn’t stop himself, sketching birds, or boys on bikes, or girls with pigtails; shop-keepers, or policemen, or doctors. I imagine that no one thought he would go on to do it for a living … until that one teacher.
So when the psalmist says, “Teach me” they are not just asking for instruction in a task; they may be asking, show me what I should give my heart to; what will use the gifts you’ve given me; the thing that will help me become the person I was created to be!
So maybe lingering with these verses will remind you of someone you asked, “Teach me” and the life-changing blessing of being taught! That’s worth the time, isn’t it?
Maybe it’s just me, but I am also drawn to the third petition – “Lead me in the path …”
I find myself remembering a time six years ago, about this time of year, when a friend, Bob, took me out to show me the ropes of hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
I was a little nervous about navigating. I think I brought two different maps! But he reassured me that the Trail is well marked with white blazes. All you need to do is follow them. Sometimes the path takes you through rocks and roots, across rivers or under highways. Trust the blazes. They will take you where you want to go.
But the psalmist isn’t asking God to be like a white blaze. Their concern is not about God’s reliability; it is about the things that might tempt them to stray from the path.
The psalmist asks God “turn my heart, from unjust gain; turn my eyes, from worthless things”
Scott Hoezee observes, “Apparently, even someone as in love with God’s Law, as this poet
clearly is, needs help. Apparently, even someone who knows full well in his head how good God’s statutes are, needs assistance to keep his feet from wandering off. [Apparently,] in this sinful and broken world, even those with the best of intentions, who know right from wrong, can have a lifelong tug-of-war with themselves to stay true to God and to God’s ways.”
It reminds me of Paul from a few weeks ago lamenting that “the good that I would do, I cannot do.” At least not consistently. At least not without God’s help.
Here’s the good news: God stands ready to help us. The Good Shepherd is always nudging us back onto the path.
That’s why we need to hear this psalm!
This coming Tuesday we will have a joint meal with the congregations of B’nai Jacob and Temple Israel. Rabbi Adam Berman will talk to us about the Torah and its role in forming Jewish worship practices. I suspect he will focus, in language that echoes Psalm 119, more about delighting in God’s law than the difficulty in keeping it!
That reminds me of a story: “St. Augustine [counsels] a catechist, who is struggling with teaching, that [the] key is delight. ‘Those learning will notice what delights you,’ he says. ‘So, delight in Christ and the scriptures, and those in your charge will slowly catch this benevolent contagion.’”
As you come to delight in the words of this psalm, and in the God that inspires them, may it light you up from the inside; may it change your heart; and may it spread from you to those you meet, like a benevolent contagion! Amen.
“Happy Birthday Miss Jones” by Norman Rockwell for The Saturday Evening Post, 1956
From Joel LeMon’s reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 2/23/14
From his reflections on the text for cepreachiing.org, 9/10/23
From Augustine and the Catechumenate by William Harmless, page 160.
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