Walk On!

I have declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes.

Psalm 119.26

Imagine the scene.

One random day after being anointed, David stands on a rocky jut overlooking the pasture full of sheep. He suddenly lifts his voice over the flock and says with great energy, “I’m going to walk with the Lord God of Israel.”

God, who’s never far off from his one-day king, whips his head around and casts his eye on the young speaker.

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” answers David with a determined nod. He taps the copy of the law he recently finished making and now carries everywhere in his shepherd’s pouch. “And I expect your statutes will keep me on track.”

Moses made a similar comment when he spoke to God on Mount Sinai. “If I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways now, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight” (Ex 33.13).

Sounds a little circular at first, but Moses speaks this way to emphasize God’s part as well as his own in making this relationship work. He wants to keep finding favor, but he knows how easy it is to put his foot wrong. He relies on clear step-by-step leading from God.

The prophet Hanani spoke on the same theme when he addressed King Asa. Asa had foolishly relied on the kings of earth instead of on the God of heaven.

“The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth,” Hanani told him, “to strengthen those whose heart is completely devoted to him” (2Ch 16.9).

This reliance on God above all is a significant theme in the Bible.

Think of it. My serious intention to live out my devotion to God draws his attention—his eyes—to me. More than that, he keeps my desire strong when he is its object. He’s actively searching the earth looking for people whose hearts he can strengthen in this way!

Do you know what that means? What David and Moses and Hanani are saying? Our passion to live for the Lord pleases him. Enough to make sure we succeed!

How does he do it, though? Consider the proverb, “A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps” (Pr 16.9).

Again, we see this in David. He had determined to follow Yahweh. He was not ashamed of this commitment and made no excuse or apology for choosing to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, regardless of what others thought of his decision. He would obey God’s statutes and trust the Lord to keep his promises.

Bear in mind that David’s commitment didn’t mean he expected he’d never make a mistake. In the first place, that would be impossible, and in the second, we know he failed.

But David did choose to trust in the Lord—16 times in Psalms alone. Time after time, his flesh and his heart needed help. He unashamedly cried out to the Lord in his distress. The secret to this kind of trust lay in admitting his need for God. He did not claim to have the ability, or the wisdom, to please God of himself. But he had the heart and the humility, and that was all God required. Not perfection just commitment.

When David was still a boy, God already saw him as a man after his own heart (1Sa 13.14).

Here’s what that means: He got this two-sided heart-walk right. He made it his intention to walk with God, and he acknowledged his need for God to teach him how to do it.

Compare this attitude to those who would follow Jesus but had something to do first— a wife, a cow, a field (Lk 9.57-62). While those might be legitimate priorities, Jesus made it clear that to follow him meant forsaking such things. This is humble trust, and absolute dependence.

While we may never become king like David did, we are destined to reign with Christ.

Child-like trust pleases God, not least because it reflects a child’s trust in his father—something we know God loves to be. He even painted a word picture for his people. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms.” (Hos 11.1,3)

Beautiful. Especially if we’ve taught our own children to walk.

As soon as mine showed signs of being ready, I made sure that sharp corners were covered and stairs blocked off.

Leaning over my son, I let him hold my fingers as he stepped slowly, first one foot then the other. Not going anywhere in particular but moving forward just the same.

Then came the moment he tried it on his own!

When he fell down I did not fault him, or scold him for hurting himself.

If he toppled, I set him on his feet again. If he lost interest—rarely!—I left him to rest. He was soon ready to go again.

It still amazes me that at first, he would only walk toward me, no one else. In those first exciting steps, I little realized, he’d also learned to carry himself away from me.

God does the same with us.

He teaches us, both by his written Word and by his indwelling Spirit, to live rightly, knowing that we might well use his benefits in ways that could take us from him.

If we, like David, don’t want to wander from the God we love, we need to rely on him to show us where to put our next step.