God the Archer.

The verse, Psalm 25:8, reads “God will instruct me in the way I should go.” I was fascinated to learn that the Hebrew word for “instruct” was “yarah”.  This means to shoot an arrow straight at a target.  So, in most of the references in the Old Testament about our Lord teaching us or instructing us, the word picture is “shooting an arrow at the target the Lord wants.”

This is illustrated in 2 King 13:15-17 when Joash, the King of Israel, visited Elisha the prophet.  Elisha was old, sick and dying, and Joash went to weep over him.  Syria was defeating the nation of Israel and Joash needed the Lord’s help.  Elisha asked the king to open the chamber’s window, and to pick up his bow and some arrows.  The prophet then asked Joash to shoot one of the arrows. But before Joash released the arrow, Elisha placed his hand on the king’s hand, and they shot the arrow together.  Elisha declared, “That is the arrow of the Lord’s victory.”

Look at this OT concept in light of the NT.  When Paul talks about “all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), the verb “to come short” is the same as an archer missing his mark.  Sin is equivalent to my shooting an arrow but missing the target that God wants for me.

How neat it is that the Lord will instruct us in his way.  He will put his hand on ours as we pull back the arrows about to be shot forward, into our lives.  God and I aim together at a given target, and the arrow will hit the bulls eye BECAUSE I allowed the Lord to instruct me, to yarah me, in His exact way at His precise target.

The Message translates Ps. 25:12:  “My question: what are God’s warriors like?  Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bulls eye.”