A SOUND EDUCATION

In our reading today, we shall concentrate on verses 98-100, and bring in Psalm 19. 7 as a support. At the first reading, it might seem that the writer is claiming to know more than anyone else—that he has “all the answers”. But he is not—he is stating facts. He is not only speaking for himself, but for all who have been taught of God through the Word. Psalm 19. 7 may seem a little more restrained in the words “the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple”.

Let us look a little closer at verses 98-100. First the writer claims that God’s commandments had made him wiser than his enemies. This may be illustrated from Acts 4. 13, where Peter and John are before the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish council. As the council listened to Peter, “they marvelled” as they “perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men”, men who had not been through the recognized channels of education. They had wisdom that could not be resisted. The explanation? “They had been with (and listened to) Jesus”. Similarly in Acts 6. 10 in relation to Stephen when he was confronted with opponents, “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake”. Stephen’s subsequent address in chapter 7 shows his knowledge of the Word of God.

In verse 99, the writer declares, “I have more understanding than all my teachers”. May we consider the greatest of all examples? In John 7. 15, we read “And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?”. The reply of the Lord is instructive, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me”, v. 16. The word of His God was His constant delight.

In verse 100, it is not the young man saying, “all the old ones are out of date”; he is really saying, as the Lord Jesus said later, that heavenly wisdom is given to the “babes”, Luke 10. 21. Age itself does not guarantee wisdom. A modern writer, Francis Schaeffer, wrote, “The ordinary Christian, with his Bible in his hand, can say that the majority is wrong”.

If you want to be wiser than your enemies, to have more knowledge than your teachers, and to have more understanding than the ancients, dwell deeply in the Word. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple”, Psa. 19. 7.