Childlike Dependence

“Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” (Ps 25:4-5 AV)

What a humble request by a very humble person!  Perhaps this is where Solomon got it from.  David shows great wisdom here in acknowledging the need for truth, direction, and deliverance.  The only source who can give that to him is God.  But what I find particularly challenging is the very last phrase.  David waits on the LORD his entire waking day for the ways, paths, truth, and salvation of the LORD.  This means he is in constant communication with God to hear His voice for the choices of life.  Every choice.  All the time.  It also appears David is suggesting he will not make a choice unless he has verification from the LORD.  The ways, paths, truth, and salvation must be in line with the will of God.  Again, this is all day long.  Note also that David uses the word ‘teach’ twice.  The other two words he uses are ‘shew’ and ‘lead’.  In the use of these words, David shows his dependence on the constant and obvious leading of the LORD.  In short, David has placed himself in the vulnerable position of listing to the LORD for every choice of life and will not act until he is convinced God has led him thus.

When I was a little lad, our neighborhood parks had young adults who would spend all day with the kids who came from the area.  We would meet in the activity building that doubled as a changing house for the park ice rink.  This activity building had all sorts of equipment for the kids to use.  If you wanted to play baseball or softball, there were bases, bats, balls, and occasionally gloves.  If you wanted to play horseshoes, there were pegs for the put and shoes in a locker.  There were jump ropes, shuffleboard discs and poles, and even volleyballs and nets.  There were tennis rackets and balls as well.  If there was something that could be played at the park, the city stocked each neighborhood park with the necessary equipment.  But the city went even further.  The staff at these parks provided learning activities for the kids.  Most arts and crafts, but occasionally there were science or nature-type activities. Especially when it rained.  My siblings and I used to go there because hanging around the neighborhood was boring.  The thing was, the staff had really interesting projects for us to do.  It wasn’t simple coloring, cutting, or pasting.  Some of the things they had us do were a bit more complicated.  That was a good thing.  It forced us to pay attention and learn.  The finished product was displayed and we had to listen and follow our teacher if we were to build the same thing.  The age of the children involved was usually somewhere between six and twelve.  Old enough to understand and follow, but not too old where we would think we could do it all by ourselves.  We had to follow instructions and could not get ahead or our birdhouse, log cabin, or pinwheel wouldn’t work out.

There is a childhood humility missing in today’s churches.  Because we have more information at our fingertips, we think we do not need God nearly as much as we do.  We are more intellectual than our forefathers, but we are not any wiser.  We think because we can find any answer to any question with a click of a mouse or a tap of the fingertip, we are independent and in need of no one.  Including God.  The availability of information caused us to lose innocent and pure faith.  We are self-sufficient.  We are self-determinate.  We are the captain of our own ships.  We don’t need advice.  We don’t need an objective opinion.  When we do seek one, it is usually from someone with the same perspective as us.  We do not need God anymore.  This is pretty sad.  David and Solomon were both wise enough to realize their deep dependence on God.  Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, knew that after all the wisdom God had given him, he really didn’t know much.  Solomon failed was David succeeded.  David never outgrew God.  Solomon did.  He has so much knowledge and wisdom, he stopped seeking and submitting to the direction of God.  Our wish is that we never lose that childlike dependence on the leading of the Spirit of God in all things pertaining to life and godliness.

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