Instruct you. Teach you. Counsel you. Watch over you.
You wouldn’t imagine just by reading this passage that this is one of the most amazing promises we find in scripture. The meaning of this passage is unlocked by the Hebrew language it was written in. What did the psalmist mean when he wrote that God instructs, teaches, counsels and watches over us?
To instruct means to give insight and wisdom, to instill prudence and circumspection, and to do so in such a way to make a person successful and prosperous. Not successful or prosperous as the world measures it, but as God measures the soul.
The word for teach here is related to shooting arrows, to throwing, to casting, to propelling out into the world, to pour water or to rain. There’s a poetic image here of an empty vessel being filled up with a driving rain. The knowledge God imparts quenches the earth and soil, it causes growth, and is as abundant as the numerous raindrops that fall during a rainstorm. God’s teaching makes us sharp like an arrow, and it is not teaching for teaching’s sake, but it is with a purpose. His wisdom drives to the depths of our souls much like an arrow pierces the heart or raindrops drive to the depths of the earth. God teaches us and propels us out into the world with a focus and purpose, aimed and pointed like the tip of an arrow.
God Counsels us. The Hebrew word here relates to purpose and a plan. God has a purpose and a plan for us, but here he counsels with us. We are not just cogs in the universe, but we have a say in our future, in God’s purpose and plan for us.
God watches over us. Literally it says that God has His eye on us. This certainly can be a physical eye he has on us, but figuratively the word means a spiritual eye. God knows and sees our soul. The full meaning of the word for eye- for having an eye on us- is related to a fountain or spring. This is poetic language. The eye that God has on us is the source of every blessing- a deep fount of power and strength. We cannot understand or know it’s depth. In much the same way, we say that the eyes are a window to the soul.
And finally, God teaches us and instructs us in the way in which we should go. The "way" is our journey, our course of life, moral character, our manner of living.
To "go" means both to live and to die. God’s promise for us is for all of our lives- in our living and in our dying. His eye is on us. He sends out into the world with a focus, a purpose, in wisdom and circumspection, with an abundance of soul and a prosperity as deep and unfathomable as looking into the eye of God.
What a promise of grace when we face difficult times and tough decisions and choices.
Just another one of God’s amazing promises for troubled times.
