Teach Me Your Way is a sermon based on Psalm 86 where we learn God’s way is to walk in truth and unite our hearts to honor His name.

Key verses:
Psalm 86:1-17

Amen. Psalm 86, Psalm 86 this evening and we will be looking at the entire chapter, 17 verses, the entire Psalm, I meant to say. Psalms are not chapters, they’re different songs. Psalm 86, as we turn there this evening, by way of introduction, do you want to know God’s way? A lot of people ask about God’s way. What do we know about His way? How can we learn His way? And how can we do many various things that are His way? Many ask those questions. Some people do that.

How do I know God’s will? Do I know His way? Well, tonight we will look at a prayer of David’s as he asks this question or asks this request, really, to teach him God’s way. Let’s come to verse 11, Psalm 86:1. As we open the Bible, let us know that we’re opening up the mind of God. So, let’s see what He has for us here in verse 11.

Psalm 86:1: “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

I submit to you this evening as we look into this psalm. God’s way is to walk in truth and to unite our hearts to honor His name. That’s what we’re going to see here in the psalm as we look at two aspects of it: the idea of forgiveness and the idea of learning His way.

Forgiveness

So, first of all, in order to understand His way, to teach us God’s way, first, we need to have forgiveness, and that’s what we see in the first 10 verses: the need for forgiveness. Psalm 86, verse 1, says this:

Psalm 86:1: “Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.”

Let’s look at a couple of things here. This whole psalm here is a prayer of David to God. I want you to notice that first phrase, “Bow down thine ear.” Have you ever wondered why we bow down sometimes when we pray? Maybe the indication comes from this passage here. Now, there are other places that would give us reason for that, but I mean, it’s just a nice little thought. He’s bowing down His ear. It’s a prayer. We can already tell it’s a prayer because of that, “O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.” It says, “I need you, Lord. I know I need you.” We need God every day no matter what the circumstances. We can have God. we can use God. We need God. Honestly, we’re nothing without God. “Without me,” one of the verses in the Bible says, “You can do nothing.” Verse number two says:

Psalm 86:2: “Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.”

What it’s saying there shows that we need to be preserved because we’re just. He’s just and because he trusts in Him, he wants God, David wants God, to preserve him, to keep him going, to keep him alive. “For I am holy,” – I’ve been pure, I’ve been right, “O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.” He says, hey help me out. Help me through all this. Verse three:

Psalm 86:3: “Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.”

That’s a good principle to know. He’s wants us to be merciful, to be gracious, to have pity, because he prays daily, The Bible tells us to pray daily. How often should we pray? Well, Psalm 55:17, another psalm that David writes says:

Psalm 55:17: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.”

We ought to pray daily for God and to talk to Him. I mean, not to go into this aspect here, but for those who are married here today, this evening, what would happen if you didn’t talk to your wife for the whole day or your husband for the whole day? Think your relationship is going to grow? No. It’s probably going to have some issues. It’s going to have some difficulties. Why? Because there’s not that communication.

We have a relationship with God as believers and we ought to communicate with Him daily. Now, thankfully, we don’t have to worry about paying – no cell phone bill to do that or paying Internet service and getting Wi-Fi to do that. We have straight access to God, immediate. And He says in verse three at the end, again, “For I cry unto thee daily.” David is asking God, he prays to Him daily.

Psalm 86:4: “Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

We can rejoice. For what? Because He’s lifted up our soul. Because God is good. He’s ready to forgive and He will give mercy to those who call upon Him.

Psalm 86:5: “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”

You know God’s ready to forgive. He wants to forgive us. What’s the New Testament passage? “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God wants to have that right relationship. He wants to have that blessed time with you and me. He doesn’t want anything to divide us or to separate us out. He wants harmony just like in a marriage relationship. You want harmony between you and your spouse. In your family relationships, there should be harmony.

Now, do you know how to irritate your siblings? Yeah, you probably did, and they knew how to irritate you, but you don’t want friction and discord there either. You want to be harmonious, and notice that verse five says he’s “ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”

You know, God is ready to forgive as much as He can, as much as He’s able to, and notice the condition to those “that call upon thee.” All you’ve got to do is come to Him and that’s it. Verse six:

Psalm 86:6: “Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.”

David has a request here, and here’s his request. He wants God to listen, to give ear, to hear his prayer, and to listen to the request that he’s about to ask and answer his request.

Psalm 86:7: “In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.”

Now, some people will take that phrase in verse number seven, and they’ll only call on God when they are in trouble. I tell you, folks, you don’t want to do that. Don’t wait until you’re in trouble to call upon God. Call upon Him all the time but know and be comforted in the fact that in verse seven, “In the day of my trouble will I call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.” When I do come to God, when I’m in trouble, He’s not going to set you out. He’s not going to hang up on you. He’s going to listen and why is that?

None Other Like God

Verse eight:

Psalm 86:8: “Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.”

“Among the gods,” – among the idols, okay – “there is none like unto thee.” Basically, David here is just comparing the fact that amongst all these other religions and worship and ideologies, you are the only God who actually hears and listens. I mean if you think about it. I think of a perfect illustration in 1 Kings chapter 18. And what happens there in 1 Kings chapter 18, Elijah goes, and he talks to the people and says:

1 Kings 18:21: “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

And so, then Elijah says okay, let’s build up an altar. Build up two, one for your god, one for my God, and whoever’s god answers by fire, he is the God. And so, the people of Baal built their altar, and from the morning until the noon, they were chanting four, five, four words, “Oh, Baal, hear us.” And they’re chanting around trying to get Baal to hear them and follow them.

Then Elijah goes and mocks them. He says, “You know you should go louder. Maybe because he’s a god, he should be listening to you, right? Maybe he’s on a journey, or maybe he sleepeth, or maybe he’s doing something else. So, you know what they do? They go louder, and then they start cutting themselves, and blood’s gushing out. Just what you want to hear right before, right after, you had dinner. And all this is going on. They go from the morning until the time of the evening sacrifice.

And then the scripture says, “But there is none that answered neither any that regarded.” Then Elijah repairs the altar because it’s been probably 12 hours, and repairs it and puts water on it. You’re thinking, “Wait, God’s supposed to answer by fire, he’s putting on water. Fire can’t go through water.” Well, in this case, it did. You know the story. He calls upon God. God answers and burns everything up. They tremble at the fact that God is who He is.

What’s he saying here in verse number eight of Psalm 86?

Psalm 86:8: “Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.”

I’m sure he knew the story of Elijah. Actually, no. He wouldn’t have. He would have been dead. Let me not speak out and say it wrong. This would have happened after his time, but the point is, is that he would have known what God did for him.

Psalm 86:9: “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.”

You know, there will be a time when all tongues and nations shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Revelation gives us that every tongue, every knee shall… Philippians 2:9, I’m just going to go and read it because right now it is not coming to my mind here, but it tells us:

Philippians 2:9: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:”

Philippians 2:10: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;”

Philippians 2:11: “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians chapter 2:9-11, and there’ll be a time when everybody will come and worship God eventually.

Psalm 86:10: “For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”

So, he prays and asks for forgiveness. He’s praying and wanting forgiveness for what he has done. Now, had David done things wrong? Sure, all of us do.

Learning God’s Way

Now, he’s ready to be taught God’s way.

Psalm 86:11: “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

Secondly, we’re going to be teaching his way to have God teach us His ways. We need to be in right fellowship with Him. Now, let’s learn the ways of God 17 to the end of the chapter. Here verse 11:

Psalm 86:11: “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

“Teach me thy way, O LORD,” – he wants God, Jehovah God, to teach him the way. Why? Well, verse 11 continues, “I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

We should be walking faithfully in what God’s Word has for us.

3 John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

David wants to know the truth.  This is one of the ways that he wants to understand from God, that he will walk in his truth. Another way of God is to “unite my heart to fear thy name.” He wants unity. He wants the brethren to be unified and brought together.

Psalm 86:12: “I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.”

What’s another way of God? To praise Him. And notice how he says here in the psalm, “with all my heart.” Not partial, everything, every part of your being. We ought to praise Him. That’s another way we can be taught His ways. And then verse 12 continues, “I will glorify thy name for evermore.” I will give praise to Him forever until the end:

Psalm 86:13: “For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”

What’s he saying there? He’s saying here that God has delivered us from the lowest of our conditions. Think of the lowest point in your life. You know God helped you through that. No matter what it is, God helped you through that point. Maybe you’re there now. God will help you through that if you come to Him. You could try to go at it alone. I don’t think it’s going to succeed as well. But he was delivered from his lowest state.

Psalm 86:14: “O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.”

He’s looking around at his condition. He said there are enemies coming about every side. How do I need to know your way? Well, here’s really God’s way. We see some of that in verses 12 and 13, but really, to know God’s way is really verse number 15. Let’s look at it together:

Psalm 86:15: “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.”

God is a God of compassion. I mean, if you think about it, He saved us from the fiery lake. He saved us from our wretched sin. And because of that, we have hope. We have the assurance that the day that we breathe our last breath here, we’re going to go up and be there with Him. He’s a God of compassion, full of compassion.

Let’s look at another way of God. Verse 15, “and gracious.” He’s loving to all. Sometimes in our lives, there are people who we just question and wonder about when we should really be caring for them. Maybe their appearance on the outside doesn’t look all appealing, or their mannerisms aren’t the way we expect them. But you know what he says, to be gracious, to be loving, to be kind to all. And we ought to do that.

Longsuffering. Longsuffering is the idea of being patient and slow to anger. I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, but if you’ve had a temper problem, that’s not going to help be slow to anger. We ought to be patient people. “But I’m not patient.” You know, you can learn that. You can develop that.

I’ll be a little personal. When I was a teenager, I was definitely not the patient person that you, that some people, think I am. Today, I could lose my temper at the drop of a hat. But one situation in my life helped me understand that this was a dumb idea to do, to just get quick-tempered. And I finally said, “You know what? I can’t do it. This is just not right.” Then again, I’m not trying to adulate myself, but some people have told me, “You have the patience of a saint.” First, I’ve never met a saint. But how would we know patience anyway?

But the point is that you can learn patience. You can learn and develop it. That’s one of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, patience, goodness, faith. It’s something that can be taught and can be developed. “But I can’t do it.” I want you to notice what word you just said, “I.” You can do it within yourself, but you know God can help you learn to be patient, to be longsuffering, to be slow to anger. So, He’s longsuffering. That is one of the ways of God.

Verse 15 finishes off, “and plenteous in mercy and truth.” He’s plenteous, very gracious, very generous in truth and mercy. God is merciful, very merciful to us.

Psalm 86:16: “O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.”

Psalm 86:17: “Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.”

What’s David asking? To show that He is faithful, He’s going to protect those who trust in Him, and He’s going to help and be comforted.

1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Now, the context in that aspect is the idea of the Rapture, but we can be comforted with the Word of God. We can be comforted with what God has for us. So, we want to know God’s ways. Verse 11 says, “Teach me my way, O LORD.”

How do we learn God’s ways? It’s right in the psalm: to walk in his truth, to unite my heart, to be full of compassion, gracious, longsuffering, plenteous of mercy and truth, praising Him, glorifying His name. It’s all in the psalm. You want to learn how to be in the way of God.

Make God’s Way Our Way

As we conclude here, God’s ways should be our ways. Do you remember years ago when the fad was going on when you had these WWJD bracelets coming out? I remember them in the late 90s. That’s when I kind of remembered seeing these things pop out. So, I would have been about 10, 11, 12, around that point. It was in elementary school, I remember that elementary into middle. And people were wearing these WWJD bracelets, “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets. Now, some people just wear this because it looks pretty cool, and it was a fashion trend of the day.

But if you really think about it, what would Jesus do? That’s really what we see here when we see “Teach me my way, O LORD.” What would God want us to do? It’s right in the psalm. We want to know the ways in the mind of God, and we see here in the psalm what His ways are, especially in verse 11 and verse 15 and verse 12. May we be taught in the ways of God.

We want to know God’s way? You want to know how to be like Christ? Christian means “Christlike.” Right in the psalm, and we can know that, and we can live that out this evening and the days going forward.

~~~~~~~

Father, we come to you in prayer. We thank you for the day given to us. We thank you for the opportunity that we have, and I pray that you just help us this evening as we consider just the things that we’ve taught, that we’ve heard, that we’ve seen in your Word this evening.

Father, teach us your way. Help us to know your way. Father, there are days that we think we know your way, and then we stumble. Help us to know your way. Help us to be like you. Help us to be Christlike. Refine us, help us to see. Your way is perfect because you care for us, because we are yours, oh Lord. And we know that we serve a mighty God because we know and understand your ways.

The invitation is simple. Two things. Number one: God has spoken to your heart, and you need this time to pray. As we finish the prayer, we’re just going to stand. We’ll have our heads bowed and our eyes closed. The music will play softly, and you take that time and you pray.

Or number two: you want someone to pray with you. You want an accountability partner. You want someone to pray. Maybe there’s someone here who needs to know your ways and who wants to be able to learn your ways, learn them better – that invitation is also for you, too, and even for the preacher up here.

Father, I pray you just bless to move in this time, in this invitation. Speak to our hearts as we act upon what’s been given this evening. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.

---

Watch the prerecorded live version of the entire service and sermon, Teach Me Your Way, on Facebook.

Teach Me Your Way — Related Sermons

You may also want to listen to or view these sermons:

Be Rooted In God’s Word

A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart