Teach me ... for I am learned in the statutes of the flesh.

"Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!" Psalm 119:12

Teach me, YOUR statutes O LORD, not mine.

Teach me your statutes, for I am ever inclined to be taught by my holy feelings,

though they be real,

they sustain me only until I crash on the shores of my sinful life.

Teach me, YOUR statutes O LORD, not mine,

for I am ever prone to be taught by my holy desires,

though they seem fit for the time and place,

I cannot see what shall come beyond the horizon of their satisfaction.

Teach me, YOUR statutes O LORD, not mine,

for I am ever eager to be taught by my own most holy thoughts,

though they make good measure of what I know,

my thoughts cannot rightly measure the length and breadth of my sin, nor the height and depth of my need in sin.

Teach me, YOUR statutes O LORD, not mine.

Surely I am learned in the statutes of the flesh, O my soul.

For my heart is ever inclined to the teachings of sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, strife, jealously, anger, rivalry, dissension, division and envy. (Ga 5:19-20)

Surely I am learned in the statutes of sin, O my soul.

For I am well educated in being a proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, conceited, brutal treacherous, and reckless.

I am well practiced in being a lover of self, a lover of money, and a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. (2 Tim 3:2-6)

Have mercy O LORD, and teach me!

For I can have the form of godliness, but not knowing its power, apart from Your teaching, I can only deny it. (2:Tim 3:5)

Have mercy O LORD, and do not avoid me.

Have mercy O LORD, and teach me!

Listen and learn from the Lord, O my soul!

He who issues His statutes, knows them best, O my soul,

be taught by Him.

He who's wisdom decreed His statutes, binds Himself to them, O my soul,

abide with Him.

He who has made Himself my Lord, makes Himself responsible for me and my keeping of His statutes,

and I am saved, O my soul,

believe in Him.

Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes. Amen.

-pmwl