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VI. Counsel, Educate, vv. 8-9
Whether it is David continuing to speak from verse 8 or God Himself, because all Scripture is God-breathed (see 2 Timothy 3:16), the instruction given in verse 9 is a command to be heeded by all God’s people.
There are questions about how to translate the latter part of this verse, as demonstrated by the difference in the KJV from the other translations quoted above. Are the “bit and bridle” keeping the horse from coming near or keeping it from getting away? The KJV favors the former. The NIV and ESV support the latter. I believe the modern translations are correct here and make the most sense. However, whether it’s to keep them from galloping away or getting too close, the fact is that it needs a bit and bridle to control them. The NLT brings out this point most clearly.
“Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
David uses this parable to warn the recalcitrant believer not to be stupid or stubborn. David knew from experience that his obstinate refusal to confess his sin led to God resorting to the “bit and bridle” to direct him painfully (to pull against them would be painful) back into His presence (Otherwise, “they will not come to you” NIV). He was instructing and warning other believers not to take the path of the fool.
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.
Pr 26:3 CSB
He was exhorting them not to be unreasonable but teachable and to exhibit meekness1, humility, and self-control.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones …meekness
Col 3:12 ESV
When pride comes, then comes shame…
But with the humble is wisdom.
Prov 11:2 NKJV
But the fruit of the Spirit is …self-control.
Gal 5:22-23 NIV
Worship in Witness:
I’m sitting in front of my computer, wondering what to write. I began to be introspective about what I had already written. Do I have a teachable spirit? What about the fruit of the Spirit and specifically self-control? The virtues mentioned in the above verses quoted are actually encapsulated in Galatians 5:23 if we accept the Amplified version:
Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).
Gal 5:23 AMP
How often does pride stand in the way of receiving encouragement, instruction, or rebuke? When faced with a moral choice, a task, or a temptation, does rationalization, sloth, or impulsiveness have sway over Scripture’s clear teaching or the Spirit’s leading? Am I even aware of these things?
These are good questions to ask myself. I ask them often. The problem comes when these questions lead to destructive thoughts such as condemnation, discouragement, and unproductive guilt. I need to follow Paul’s example in Romans 7 & 8.
I must adopt his way of thinking and acquire his attitude.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me…24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 7:21,24-25a, 8:1-8:4 NIV
I must remind myself:
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:5-8
That I have a duty:
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation2—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:12-13 NIV (2011)
And a new identity:
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:14-16
All for the glory of God and my good:
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30
I could go on and quote the rest of the chapter, but this journal entry is already too long. In summary, I can encourage myself and humbly receive these truths:
- God is for us (v 31)
- God is giving (v 32)
- Nothing will separate us from Christ’s love (v 35)
- Because of this, “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (v 37)
And one more question I (we) must ask myself (ourselves) – Am I (are you) convinced?
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
Witness in Promise, Poem, Prayer, and Praise
A Personal Petition (Blessing)
May I always be humble and teachable
May my heart be open and reachable
May my walk be humble and impeachable
May my relationships be cohesible
May my prayer life be unceasable
May my ways be pure and peaceable
Teach… Reach… Remind… Unbind
LORD, Your ways, teach me
In every moment of my day
LORD, by Your Spirit, reach me
And in Your will, let me stay
LORD, constantly remind me
In my work and when I pray
Lord, from my flesh, unbind me
And bind my spirit to obey
A Teachable Heart by Fishes and Loaves
Give me a teachable heart
Let your truth become alive to me
A heart that longs to learn from you
Give me a teachable heart
A love that reaches far beyond myself
And takes me deeper into who you are
Let my heart be the fertile soil
That you increase a hundred fold
Lyrics & Video: https://youtu.be/e-Kzfg-x8F8
Notes & Quotes:
1. prautes, or praotes, an earlier form, (prau<th$, NT:4240) denotes “meekness.” In its use in Scripture, in which it has a fuller, deeper significance than in nonscriptural Greek writings, it consists not in a person’s “outward behavior only; nor yet in his relations to his fellow-men; as little in his mere natural disposition. Rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; it is closely linked with the word tapeinophrosune [humility], and follows directly upon it, Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; cf. the adjectives in the Sept. of Zeph 3:12, “meek and lowly”;… it is only the humble heart which is also the meek, and which, as such, does not fight against God and more or less struggle and contend with Him. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of a sense that these, with the insults and injuries which they may inflict, are permitted and employed by Him for the chastening and purifying of His elect” (Trench, Syn. Sec. xlii). In Gal 5:23 it is associated with enkrateia, “self-control.”
(from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
2“Obligation” is the keynote. Only the negative side is stated; the positive side—that we are debtors to the Spirit—must be inferred. If we do not have an obligation to live in terms of the sinful nature, the conclusion must be that our obligation is to live and serve God in terms of the Spirit. It is tremendously important to grasp the import of v. 12, because it teaches beyond all question that the believer still has a sinful nature, despite having been crucified with Christ. The flesh has not been eradicated. But we are obliged not “to live according to the flesh [sinful nature].” There is really no option, for the flesh is linked to death as life is linked to the Spirit. Sanctification is not a luxury but a necessity. Life in accordance with the flesh is doomed to suffer death (cf. v. 6).
Harrison, E. F., & Hagner, D. A. (2008). Romans. In T. Longman III &. Garland, David E. (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans–Galatians (Revised Edition) (Vol. 11, p. 134). Zondervan.
Psalms For The Journey 
