Psalm 119:100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts. This is no mere boasting, no invidious comparison. It is the recognition of the fact that the man who is taught of God knows what no human teacher can teach. The human teacher has a limited range; the Divine Teacher transcends it. But the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Divine revelations, are the agencies God uses for imparting the higher knowledge. It is necessary to say that what God teaches is not a mere advance on what man teaches. It is other than man teaches. Man deals with the surface of things; God deals with the inmost of things. Man keeps within the agency of limited human language; God can teach through spiritual sensibilities. It is true that he uses the written Word; but it is not true that he confines himself to the formality of the Word. He teaches through the spiritual feeling which the Word excites. There is much made of a comprehensive, all-round education, but it is not enough insisted on that this must include the Divine teaching. I. THE NECESSARY LIMITS OF HUMAN TEACHINGS. 1. They are limited by the mental capacity of those who teach and those who are taught. 2. They are limited by the imperfection of the vehicle by which human knowledge is conveyed. No human word has the same connotation for every one who uses it, and few words keep the same connotation for one man through a long life. 3. They are limited by the variableness of the material at their command. New facts are continually displacing old ones, and new theories condemning old ones. In science, a book ten years old is comparatively useless. 4. They are limited by the range over which they extend, which is compelled to keep away from all knowledge of God and the things of God. "Who by searching can find out God?" And yet it is in that higher range of knowledge alone that man's true nature can be unfolded. The queen of sciences is theology. II. THE DIVINE TEACHINGS BEYOND THE HUMAN LIMITS. Is man only a mind? Many seem to think of him as having no more than a mental organization. A man is a spiritual being, kin to God, having for his present agency and use a body and a mind. The Divine range is the soul, which is the man himself. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.WEB: I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts. |
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