“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.
(Psalm 37:23-24)
It is a lie to believe that following Christ, or becoming a Christian is the end to all hard times and struggles. The truth is, often the hard times, for some, appear to increase with Christ. The struggles and temptations (now that the Holy Spirit has opened out eyes to their presence in our life) seem to bombard us. And, if you’re anything like me, born again christians will eventually realize that even as a follower of Christ, they will continue to sin.
A little stressed and confused, this verse became sweet encouragement to my eyes. The reality of God establishing our steps points to His Soverignty in our lives. Now, while I do believe God can and will give us over to our sinful desires for a season, God’s soverignty is often at work guiding and directing our lives…sometimes the path is clear and free…sometimes the path is rocky and hard to see. Nonetheless, God is still there guiding the steps we take.
Vs. 24 is pretty sweet too…it starts out “though he fall”. UH, hello….we’re talking about the “righteous” in this section…and yes, even the righteous fall. As Christians parts of our journey will be difficult to traverse. We might not even want to move forward for the uncertainty in our footing scares us. The incredible thing is that regardless of our inevitable “fall” or stumble (as my version puts it) God’s hand is there to hold us up. It is strong, mighty, and ever-present.
When that happens, what happens to the righteous? I can’t help but imagine that it’s the blood of Christ working as we stumble along. David tells us that the righteous will not be cast headlong. Even as we stumble, once considered righteous in the eyes of God…he will not cast us out.
I love this. in a Psalm that spends it’s 40 verses contrasting the righteous and wicked…David tells us that once God has grabbed our hand, He’s not letting go. How is that possible? Well, back to Christ. It’s through him that we are made righteous, nothing we can do on our own will elevate us to the status of “righteous”. I might also challenge that the opposite is true – once covered in the Blood of Christ, nothing we do has the ability to nullify the righteousness granted by Christ. It is only through God’s grace, Christ and faith that we are made clean, and I’m not sure if we can out-do (on either end of the spectrum) the work that He has done. When (and yes…we most certainly will) we stumble, God’s hand will continue to hold up His Child…thanks to the Blood of Christ. No other hand has that kind of redeeming and sanctifying power…it’s only by God and through God that we are able to remain “righteous”…and we should rest assured in that reality…especially when we walk (or stumble) along those rockier parts of our journey.
a heart set on pilgrimage 