Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me.
Guiding and teaching
A short but expressive prayer. All need it. We need it when we are surrounded with gloom, when we are tempted, and when we find bur path very rough.
I. The petition for guidance. We need it because--
1. We are ignorant of the future.
2. The way is dark.
3. We need thus to pray, from a deep conviction that we dare not go alone.
4. Because we are so weak. The Psalmist asks that God will lead him according to His own revealed will. “In Thy truth.”
II. The petition for instruction. How much we need to learn. How little we know after all these years. We don’t know our bodies, still less our souls. We know not about time, how precious it is, but yet less of eternity. How little we know of life or of men, Therefore we need to pray, “Lord, teach me.” (William Scott.)
On Thee do I wait all the day.
How to spend the day with God
Who can truly say this? Who among us lives such a life of communion with God? This waiting is that of patient expectation and constant attendance. God was keeping David in suspense. He could not tell what was the mind and will of God. But he waits continually on Him. And so, in like circumstances, must we.
I. What is it to wait upon God?
1. It is to live a life of desire towards Him. Our desire should be, not only towards the good things God gives, but towards God Himself.
2. It is to live a life of delight in God. Desire is love in motion, as a bird upon the wing. Delight is love at rest, as a bird upon the nest.
3. It is a life of dependence on God, as the child waits on the father.
4. It is a life of devotedness to God, as the servant waits on his master.
5. And it is to make His will our rule; for our practice or for our patience, as the will of His providence may ordain.
II. This we must do every day, and all day long.
1. Every day. Servants in the courts of princes have their weeks or months of waiting appointed them, and are tied to attend only at certain times; but God’s servants must never be out of waiting. Sabbath days and weekdays, idle days and busy days, days of prosperity and of adversity.
2. Toto die,--or all the day through. By casting our daily care upon Him. By managing our daily business for Him. Receiving our daily comforts from Him. Resisting our daily temptations, and doing our daily duties, in the strength of His grace. Application: Consider this need of waiting on God at particular times. At family worship. When teaching your children. At shop or business. At meal times. On friendly visits. God waits to be gracious to those who wait on Him. (Matthew Henry.)
Waiting on God
I. Illustrate the spirit and meaning of this verse.
1. It does not mean that David was incessantly occupied with religious exercises.
2. The words are quite consistent with a knowledge of many transgressions.
3. The words involve a figurative meaning. This “waiting” is the spirit of trust, of loving obedience, of hope and confidence, of a most intimate friendship, of the deepest reverence.
II. In what way would a day be spent by one who sincerely uttered these words?
1. The day would be begun with God.
2. One who has begun the day with God will remember His presence, and seek His favour through the day. What is wanted of all of us is to carry the habit of religion into our ordinary pursuits. (W. G. Barrett.)
Prolonged waiting upon God
The thoughtless rush before God, in which we expect to get all we covet and away again, is worse than sacrilege. The unapproachable glories cannot be known in the twinkling of an eye. One of Ruskin’s pupils once said to him, “The instant I entered the gallery at Florence I knew what you meant by the supremacy of Boticelli.” “In an instant, did you?” was the somewhat withering reply. “It took me twenty years to find it out.” If we wait before God for a lifetime we shall only just begin to feel His enchantments. (Thomas G. Selby.)