Thou shalt enlarge my heart
The fourth letter -- Dallet the door. Humility, the nullification of the ego, it also represents the poor man, it is blessed to be poor because you are open to receive. Finally there is structure to this letter which signifies a step, these are the steps you take to receive the kingdom.
Psalm 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
This is where we begin, realizing we are made from the dust of the ground. We are nothing, and so it is easy to nullify our ego.
26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
This word "declared" means to count, to recount, to declare. My ways refers to my journey, my road, my path, my direction. Thou heardest me means to answer, respond, testify. So in the last section we learned that like God we needed to share and speak and minister, and our aspiration was to be one for whom God would hear and answer our prayers. Well here he says I have done that and you have answered my prayers. So now his next prayer is to "teach me thy statutes". This refers to a prescribed task that you are to fulfill. You now have a job in the kingdom and you want to fulfill your job. You are looking to God to teach you how to do that. So the prayer is not just what, but also how.
27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
The precepts are the instruction manual, the how to, the nuts and bolts. When we are first saved we are interested in the big picture but as we get more involved and have to actually do the work of an evangelist or a teacher or a pastor we want to know the nuts and bolts, all the instructions. When I was a teacher every year my teaching became more refined. It as all about how to make the most of my 45 minutes. At first it was about how to get the most of my 180 days of class, then how to make the most of my homework assignments, and then how to make the most of every minute of the class time. I studied the best way to put things into the long term memory, what works and what is less effective and what doesn't work.
28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
You melt when the heat is turned on high. When I was teaching the heat was on, we had to perform, we had to get the test results, the principal was under fire and she in turn would turn up the heat on us. It was a heavy burden. You could see the other teachers exhausted, struggling in the heat. But you pray to be strengthened in the world. Get insight, wisdom, knowledge, grace, encouragement, refreshing from the word. And as a result while everyone else is dragging you are still moving with a bounce in your step. One thing I did which the other teachers did not was I would spend fifteen hours a week during the summer preparing lesson plans so that they were ready to go like MRE's. This way I could act with much greater stamina because I had already done the work the previous summer.
29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
Sad to say but there is a way of lying, it is called cheating. The Atlanta school system got caught doing this. I taught for one year at a school in Long Island and this was their way. I refused to take that way so they showed me the door. This happened during a recession and there was a hiring freeze for teachers. There were only two exceptions, Earth Science and Special Ed. Since I was both the Lord was gracious to me and I moved to a school who wanted to do the right thing by the kids.
30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
My goal was simple, I wanted the kids who came into my class to have the very real possibility of scoring at the very top of the entire city of NY if they simply followed my lead. When my son heard this he thought that was the goal of all teachers. Not even close. It may have been at one point, but the reason they talk about demographics, and how many free lunches, and what percent of this or that you have is to make excuses for why their kids don't do as well. In NYC they don't judge you simply by how well your kids do, no it is a complicated formula based on "improvement". Since they don't ever share this formula with you it is nebulous. I understood that. I get that kids in Stuyvesant had to take an exam to get into that school so their starting position is better than my kids. I knew my kids were poor and that caused a whole lot of difficulties they had to overcome. In any given year 25% of them would spend time in a homeless shelter. But I didn't want caveats, I didn't want "all things considered". I wanted them to step onto the court with the top kids in the city and be every bit as good if not better. That was my goal and it seemed reasonable since that is how I understand the Lord's goal. There are not many elites among us, not may of the best and brightest and yet He is going to build us into one new man that brings in the kingdom and conquers Satan.
31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.
Think of David's mighty men. I understood the odds were against me, but I also understood "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ". That seemed to me to make this an even odds fight.
32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
I like the example of Michael Jordan. He was the most dynamic scorer in all of basketball and yet his team was not able to get to the championship round. So he realized he needed to "enlarge his heart" and so he also became the best defender on the court. Not only would he put up the most points, but he would also shut down the other teams top scorer. But still it wasn't enough. So he realized he needed to enlarge his heart and become a leader on the team. He pushed them to become stronger, to fill out their roles. In critical moments he would trust a role player to take the shot. Then they began to win and become champions. But still he needed to enlarge his heart to forgive and forget. When they got Dennis Rodman they took a player that the rest of the league could not take and who had an ugly history with their team. Step by step by step he was led to enlarge his heart to see year by year how he could improve.
The fourth letter -- Dallet the door. Humility, the nullification of the ego, it also represents the poor man, it is blessed to be poor because you are open to receive. Finally there is structure to this letter which signifies a step, these are the steps you take to receive the kingdom.
Psalm 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
This is where we begin, realizing we are made from the dust of the ground. We are nothing, and so it is easy to nullify our ego.
26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
This word "declared" means to count, to recount, to declare. My ways refers to my journey, my road, my path, my direction. Thou heardest me means to answer, respond, testify. So in the last section we learned that like God we needed to share and speak and minister, and our aspiration was to be one for whom God would hear and answer our prayers. Well here he says I have done that and you have answered my prayers. So now his next prayer is to "teach me thy statutes". This refers to a prescribed task that you are to fulfill. You now have a job in the kingdom and you want to fulfill your job. You are looking to God to teach you how to do that. So the prayer is not just what, but also how.
27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
The precepts are the instruction manual, the how to, the nuts and bolts. When we are first saved we are interested in the big picture but as we get more involved and have to actually do the work of an evangelist or a teacher or a pastor we want to know the nuts and bolts, all the instructions. When I was a teacher every year my teaching became more refined. It as all about how to make the most of my 45 minutes. At first it was about how to get the most of my 180 days of class, then how to make the most of my homework assignments, and then how to make the most of every minute of the class time. I studied the best way to put things into the long term memory, what works and what is less effective and what doesn't work.
28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
You melt when the heat is turned on high. When I was teaching the heat was on, we had to perform, we had to get the test results, the principal was under fire and she in turn would turn up the heat on us. It was a heavy burden. You could see the other teachers exhausted, struggling in the heat. But you pray to be strengthened in the world. Get insight, wisdom, knowledge, grace, encouragement, refreshing from the word. And as a result while everyone else is dragging you are still moving with a bounce in your step. One thing I did which the other teachers did not was I would spend fifteen hours a week during the summer preparing lesson plans so that they were ready to go like MRE's. This way I could act with much greater stamina because I had already done the work the previous summer.
29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
Sad to say but there is a way of lying, it is called cheating. The Atlanta school system got caught doing this. I taught for one year at a school in Long Island and this was their way. I refused to take that way so they showed me the door. This happened during a recession and there was a hiring freeze for teachers. There were only two exceptions, Earth Science and Special Ed. Since I was both the Lord was gracious to me and I moved to a school who wanted to do the right thing by the kids.
30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
My goal was simple, I wanted the kids who came into my class to have the very real possibility of scoring at the very top of the entire city of NY if they simply followed my lead. When my son heard this he thought that was the goal of all teachers. Not even close. It may have been at one point, but the reason they talk about demographics, and how many free lunches, and what percent of this or that you have is to make excuses for why their kids don't do as well. In NYC they don't judge you simply by how well your kids do, no it is a complicated formula based on "improvement". Since they don't ever share this formula with you it is nebulous. I understood that. I get that kids in Stuyvesant had to take an exam to get into that school so their starting position is better than my kids. I knew my kids were poor and that caused a whole lot of difficulties they had to overcome. In any given year 25% of them would spend time in a homeless shelter. But I didn't want caveats, I didn't want "all things considered". I wanted them to step onto the court with the top kids in the city and be every bit as good if not better. That was my goal and it seemed reasonable since that is how I understand the Lord's goal. There are not many elites among us, not may of the best and brightest and yet He is going to build us into one new man that brings in the kingdom and conquers Satan.
31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.
Think of David's mighty men. I understood the odds were against me, but I also understood "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ". That seemed to me to make this an even odds fight.
32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
I like the example of Michael Jordan. He was the most dynamic scorer in all of basketball and yet his team was not able to get to the championship round. So he realized he needed to "enlarge his heart" and so he also became the best defender on the court. Not only would he put up the most points, but he would also shut down the other teams top scorer. But still it wasn't enough. So he realized he needed to enlarge his heart and become a leader on the team. He pushed them to become stronger, to fill out their roles. In critical moments he would trust a role player to take the shot. Then they began to win and become champions. But still he needed to enlarge his heart to forgive and forget. When they got Dennis Rodman they took a player that the rest of the league could not take and who had an ugly history with their team. Step by step by step he was led to enlarge his heart to see year by year how he could improve.