UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WAYS (4)

“MAKE ME UNDERSTAND the WAY of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works” – Psalm 119:27

There is a Divine Imperative to UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WAYS: “MAKE ME UNDERSTAND the WAY of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works” (Psa.119:27). Although human responsibility is important, it takes God Himself to make us understand His Ways. Having an eternal and intimate relationship with Christ – the Way, comes by Grace. Moses didn’t know God’s Ways through self-exertion. It was God Who “MADE KNOWN HIS WAYS to Moses…” (Psa.103:7). David prayed and trusted God to show him His Ways (Psa.25:4; 27:11).

Although God desires that we understand His Ways, scriptures affirm that they surpass human understanding: “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom.11:33b); “His understanding is unsearchable” (Isa.40:28). Zophar asked Job: “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above – what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below – what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea” (Job 11: 7-9, NIV).

We cannot by self-effort comprehend God’s Ways: “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything” (Ecc.11:5). Yet, God loves us and wants us to understand His glorious Ways so that we might walk in them. He has no pleasure in hoarding the secrets of His Ways. His Thoughts and Ways transcend ours: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa.55: 8-9). The Majestic God cannot be measured. The Miracle-working God cannot be contained. Understanding God in His fullness is impracticable for fallen humanity on this side of eternity.

God therefore sends His Word to elevate our thoughts and ways to His realms: “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa.55: 10-11). God ushers us into the wonders of His Ways as we embrace His Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord Who sees beyond what we see, knows beyond what we know, and works in ways beyond our thoughts, calls us to Understand the Way of His precepts, meditate on His wonderful words and works (v.27) and reject the way of lying (v.29), having “chosen the way of truth” (v.30).