The Miracle Worker

Psalm 86:11-17

11Teach me your ways, O LORD,

that I may live according to your truth!

Grant me purity of heart,

that I may honor you.

12With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.

I will give glory to your name forever,

13for your love for me is very great.

You have rescued me from the depths of death!

14O God, insolent people rise up against me;

violent people are trying to kill me.

And you mean nothing to them.

15But you, O Lord, are a merciful and gracious God,

slow to get angry,

full of unfailing love and truth.

16Look down and have mercy on me.

Give strength to your servant;

yes, save me, for I am your servant.

17Send me a sign of your favor.

Then those who hate me will be put to shame,

for you, O LORD, help and comfort me.

Have you ever seen the movie or the play The Miracle Worker? Billed as “the Helen Keller story,” it was also the Anne Sullivan story. Sullivan was the teacher who helped work the miracle in Helen Keller.

Helen Keller was blind and deaf from an early childhood disease. Her parents hired Anne Sullivan to teach the girl. But how do you teach language to someone who can’t see and hear? You can press letter signs into her hands, but how do you teach her that things have names that can be spelled out? And how can you even get this wild child to sit still long enough to learn?

With patience and lots of hard work.

Touchingly, The Miracle Worker shows the struggle of teacher and student—establishing discipline, earning trust, going through the motions again and again—until finally the “eureka” moment arrives. “Waa! Waa!” Helen says as her hands splash the cold water. In her babylike speech, she says the name of this thing. The teacher has finally gotten through to her.

“Teach me your ways, O Lord,” David prays in this psalm. And sometimes we must seem as blind and deaf as Helen Keller. We close our eyes to God’s work and don’t want to hear his Word. But, fortunately, we have a great teacher. With patience and lots of hard work, God gets through to us, teaching us to live according to his truth.

Thank God for teachers, and praise him for being a patient teacher to us.

Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach me thy way!

Thy guiding grace afford—teach me thy way!

Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight;

Lead me with heavenly light, teach me thy way!

B. MANSELL RAMSEY

Bible Networking

The King James Version more literally translates the second half of verse 11, “unite my heart to fear thy name.” In other words, David is asking God to change the situation that Paul bemoans in Romans 7:15, where he says that he really wants to do right but doesn’t do it.

Notable Quotable

In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Rizpah,” one of the characters refers to Psalm 86:15:

Sin? O yes we are sinners, I know let all that be,

And read me a Bible verse of the Lord’s goodwill toward men.

“Full of compassion and mercy, the Lord,” let me hear it again;

“Full of compassion and mercy long suffering.” Yes, O yes!

For the lawyer is born but to murder, the Saviour lives but to bless.