“Order my steps according to your word!”
[Psalm 119:129-136]
I believe that walking faithfully on one path until the end is impossible without God's grace. The reason is that without His grace, we are easily led astray by the various deceptive paths of life, rather than walking faithfully on one path until the end. Our steps need to be firm. We need a certain steadiness to quietly walk a single path. As we walk the path that the Lord walked on Golgotha, the narrow road, we need to establish our steps even more firmly. Therefore, we must not be seduced by the wide path that lies ahead of us.
In today’s passage, Psalm 119:133, the psalmist prays to God, saying, “Establish my steps in Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” Based on this verse, I want to reflect on two things under the title: “Establish my steps firmly in Your word!” (1) Why should we establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord? (2) How can we establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord?
First, why should we establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord?
There are two reasons:
(1) To prevent iniquity from having dominion over us, we must establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord.
When does iniquity have dominion over us? It takes dominion when we do not keep the word of the Lord in our hearts. Look at Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” When God’s commandments are violated, we see the phenomenon of disregarding His word and not keeping it in our hearts. The result of this phenomenon is sin. The reason we fall into sin is that we do not keep God’s word in our hearts, which allows our hearts to be governed not by His word, but by the sin that arises from our old nature. This must not happen. We must no longer allow sin to dominate us. Rather, we must keep God’s word in our hearts and let His word govern us. We must love His commandments more and live according to them. Therefore, we must establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord.
(2) We must establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord to be saved from the oppression of people.
Look at Psalm 119:134: “Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts.” The pressure we face as we follow God’s word is a good test to reveal whether we are truly standing firm in His word. If we are not firmly established in His word, the pressure will cause us to give up God’s word and compromise with the world, thus sinning against God. However, if we stand firm in God’s word, the pressure that comes upon us will be a great opportunity to establish our steps even more firmly in His word. This is God's salvation. While being rescued from oppression is certainly salvation, being made even more firm in God's word through oppression is also part of His salvation.
Second, how can we establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord?
In today's passage, Psalm 119:129-136, we are taught three important lessons:
(1) To establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord, we must become simple.
Look at verse 130 of today’s passage: "The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple." Here, "the simple" refers to those who are single-minded and not double-hearted before God, meaning those who sincerely seek to honor God alone (Matthew 11:25; Psalm 27:4) (Park Yun-Seon). When God's word is opened to such people, they gain understanding. And with that understanding, we can establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord.
(2) To establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord, we must open our mouths wide and pant for it.
Look at Psalm 119:131: "I opened my mouth and panted, because I longed for your commandments." This means that just as a person cannot live without breathing air, the psalmist knew that without God's commandments, he would die, and thus he longed for them (Park Yun-Seon). This is how much we should desire the word of the Lord. We need to open our mouths and pant for God's word, understanding that without it, we cannot survive. We must long for God's word with a sense of spiritual survival.
(3) To establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord, we must keep His marvelous word.
Look at Psalm 119:129: "Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them." The psalmist experienced the wonder of God's testimonies, and that experience led him to keep God's commandments. He established his steps firmly in the word of the Lord. How about us? If we experience the wonder of God's word, we will be even more diligent to obey it. However, if we have not experienced the wonder of God's word, we will be lazy in keeping it. We will not desire to learn from God's word, just as the psalmist did (v. 135). As a result, we will cause those who keep God's commandments to weep (v. 136). We must no longer be like this. We need to experience the wonder of God's word. By obeying it, we will experience more and more of God's grace (v. 132). Therefore, we must establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord.
We must establish our steps firmly in the word of the Lord.
We must do so to ensure that sin does not have dominion over us. Also, to be saved from the oppression of those who break God's word, we must establish our steps firmly in it. To do this, we must become simple. We must have a single-minded heart that seeks to honor the Lord alone. Furthermore, we must open our mouths and, to survive, eat God's word. By keeping God's marvelous word, we can establish our steps firmly in His word. Let us pray to be people who, by keeping His word, establish our steps firmly in the Lord's path.
Desiring to establish my steps firmly in the word of the Lord, towards the heavenly kingdom,
Pastor James Kim
(Praying to build my house on the rock)