Psalm 51:18 Do good in your good pleasure to Zion: build you the walls of Jerusalem. I. The QUALIFICATIONS for a true teacher. Recalling to what the "then" refers, we find that a true teacher must be a man marked by — 1. Penitence and loathing for sin. 2. Purity of heart. 3. Fellowship with God. II. The PEOPLE a true teacher seeks to bless. "Transgressors," men who have broken the Divine law. "Sinners," a wider name describing all who neglect, as well as all who violate that law. What a school! Such was His who came "not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The lost. III. The THEME. a true teacher unfolds. "Thy ways." This may mean, as it continually does — 1. God's commandments, i.e. His ways for man to take; or — 2. God's habits of grace, justice, mercy. "My ways are not your ways," etc. IV. The METHOD a true teacher employs. Teaching is the noblest occupation, the highest art, the strongest agency of man. "We persuade men." V. The RESULT the true teacher seeks. "Converted to Thee." Turned back from evil; turned in thought, mind, will, character, towards God. (U. R. Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.WEB: Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. |
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