re-Ver(sing) Verses

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

Psalm 25:9 | NIV | Other Versions | Context

Brief

Have you ever felt hopeless and helpless and you don’t know what to do? Perhaps by your own fault you have placed yourself in an insufferable situation. Perhaps by no fault of yours you found yourself to be suffering. In that case God will guide you, who are meek. God will show you the way, so have hope not in yourself, or others, but in God. If you are proud, and have a tendency to depend on yourself, this verse encourages you to put yourself down and humble yourself down before the Lord, for it is the humble whom God will guide, and not the haughty. It is the meek whom pleases the Lord, and not the proud. It is when we submit to the authority of God that we are truly able to enjoy God’s grace and blessings for us. In this study, we will examine why there is great value in humility.

Analysis

the humble – many other versions render this as meek – and while meekness perhaps hold a more negative and contemptuous connotation than humble today, in the Bible these two terms are almost interchangeably used. Meekness suggests a little weakness – and perhaps in this verse it is true. When you feel weak and helpless, when you are miserable and afflicted, and you see yourself as unworthy, pathetic, lost and ruined, or perhaps in lesser terms, you are simply suffering, and you don’t know what to do – God will intervene.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth [Matthew 5:5]. He will not abandon the meek and lowly, God will not forsake those who have been humbled by the weight of their sins. God will not discard those who are poor in spirit and whose hearts are broken. God will guide them, teach them the way, in his own way, perhaps, but ultimately lead them, through the Spirit and into the truth. For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory [Psa 149:4].

Our Lord is humble, too. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls [Matthew 11:29]. Unlike our general mythological perception of gods, who are proud and vain and seem to have no bit of humility in them. Does someone in so much power has any need for humbleness? Certainly not. But Jesus was as humble as a man can get in his time on earth – he was the Son of God, and while he never denied that, and while he loudly proclaimed that, he was never too good for the poor, he was never too clean for the dirty, he was never too wise for the unlearned, he was never too busy for the sick. In fact, he went out of his way to associate himself with the weak.

teaches them his way – Does the Lord not guide the proud, then? Does he not teach the proud his way? Well, the proud wouldn’t make themselves available to be taught or guided anyway, would they? The proud, typically, rejects and opposes the Lord. Likewise, they do not please the Lord, and the Lord opposes them as well. It takes a humble person to be receptive towards God. It takes a humble heart, aware of its owner’s sins and iniquities, to know that in God is the better way, the better truth, the better life.

Conclusion

The meek are sinners, no doubt, as are the proud, but it is the meek whom pleases the Lord, it is the meek who are justified in front of the Lord. God opposes the proud. It takes a lot of humility to confess your sins. It takes a humble character to admit you are not worthy, and you are stuck. It is hard for every proud person to admit that there is a God, it is hard for every proud person to confess that this God is his or her personal Lord. I believe it is hard for a proud person to swallow down his pride, and to put his entire life into the hands of an intelligence and a force that is unseeable and untouchable. But when it comes to the Lord, who is so much greater, so much wider, so much better, surely it makes every sense for us to fall to our knees in humility in front of him? For in front of God, we can boast of nothing. And when we realise that, we are then truly ready to be led by God into his truth – But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity [Psa 37:11].

God bless,
Z.