"Make Your way straight before me"
[Psalms 5]
One day, I drove to a restaurant with my father-in-law, mother-in-law and my children in order to have my niece’s birthday meal. At that time, I didn't know how to get to the restaurant, so I got directions from the computer internet and drove to the restaurant safely. But after we have a good meal time together, I got lost when I was coming back home. The reason I got lost was because I could have gone back to the way I came, but I went on another way. The reason I went the another way was because I thought for sure that another way was an expressway to my home. At that time, when my father-in-law saw me got lost and wandering, he was little bit worried. At that time, I confidently told my father-in-law,'Do you not trust me? Trust me, father. Even on this road, there is definitely a highway to go home.' However, I got lost and eventually went a lot in the opposite direction from home. Eventually, I admitted that I was lost in my mind and got off at a nearby gas station and asked for a direction. And as the person working at the gas station told me, we were able to return home safely. The lesson I learned here was that having confidence is important, but confidence based on a wrong fact can be dangerous. I wasn’t confident based on the fact, but based on my assumption.
Looking down from an airplane, Los Angeles, USA looks like a checkerboard. The roads are almost straight and well listed. And the curved road is not very visible. So it's a little easier to find a way in Los Angeles. So I thought that the another way that I took was definitely straight. But perhaps it was little bent street. While I was driving, I thought it was straight road, but it probably wasn't. Likewise, the way of faith isn’t always seem to be straight. There is a curved road in the way of faith. Although we, the believers, must walk on the straight way, we can choose to walk on the curved way, thinking confidently that it’s the straight way based on the wrong fact. As a result, we have no choice but to experience the consequences of our wrong choice. Therefore, we must choose the straight way and walk straight. Then, what is the straight way according to the Bible?
According to Psalms 5:8, the psalmist David prays to God, “Make Your way straight before me.” There must have been many curved ways and many tempting ways, but David prayed to God for him to walk the Lord's straight way. And he walked the Lord's way straight. I would like to meditate on three things based on Psalms 5 about what life is walking the Lord's way straight.
First, the life of walking the Lord’s way straight is “the life of prayer.”
Look at Psalms 5:1-3: “Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” These days, I am experiencing God revealing my sin of not walking on the Lord’s way straight because as I am serving the Lord's church I am not praying properly. I am discovering myself that I am walking to the left or to the right. The reason why my pastoral ministry is inconsistent and moving to the right and to the left is because my prayer life has problems. So the Lord is making me to pray. The Lord is making me to repent and enabling me to no longer walking right and left on the way but to walk on the Lord’s way straight by making me to realize His will in prayer. He who walks the Lord's way straight asks God to consider his “groaning” [‘thoughts that are focused on God or dedicated heart to God’ (Park) in the danger of going left or right (v. 1). In other words, he pours out his heart to God. Especially, the psalmist David poured out his heart in the morning and hoped that his prayer would be answered (v. 3). Pastor Spurgeon said: ‘Prayer is the key to the open the day, and it must be the lock that closes the day’ (Park). In other words, when we wake up early in the morning before starting the day's routine, we should pray to God, “Lord, let me walk Your way straight today,” and then walk faithfully on that way. And at the end of the day at night before we fall asleep, we should be able to look back that day and give thanks to God for His grace that enabled us to walk the Lord's way straight. Then we will be able to have a sweet sleep because of the beneficial day and the day that brings glory to God. But when we don’t pray, which is the key and the lock of our daily lives, we will be at greater risk of being expose to sin so that evil dwells with us rather than the Lord dwells with us (v. 4). Therefore, we need to develop a good habit of starting the day with prayer and ending the day with prayer.
Second, the life of walking the Lord’s way straight is “the life of worship.”
Look at Psalms 5:7 – “But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.” David worshiped God even though he was in a situation where he couldn’t worship. He lived a life of worship even though there were “The boastful” (v. 5), “all who do iniquity” whom the Lord hates (v. 5), “those who speak falsehood” whom He destroys (v. 6) and “the man of bloodshed and deceit” whom the Lord abhors (v. 6). How could David walk the Lord's way straight while everyone is walking on the curved road? There may be many people around us who are either walking on the curved way rather than walking on the Lord's way straight or walking the Lord's way staggeringly. But when I think about how David was able to walk the Lord's way straight beyond his situation, I think there were two reasons:
(1) The first reason why David was able to walk straight on the Lord’s way was because of the Lord’s abundant lovingkindness (v. 7).
In order for David to go to the right way that he wanted to go even he saw the actions of all these wicked people, he had no choice but to trust in God's mercy (Park). It is because of God's abundant lovingkindness that we can worship God in the midst of many wicked people, many persecutions and adversities, and many pains and sufferings.
(2) The second reason why David was able to walk straight on the Lord’s way was because he feared the Lord.
David was able to worship God “my King and my God” (v. 2) beyond his difficult situations because he feared God. He who fears God hates evil, so he chooses the Lord's way and walks straight rather than choose and walk the curved way.
By God’s abundant grace and mercy, David was able to look to God and worship Him in the midst of many enemies and wicked people. Even under such circumstance, he was able to worship God because he was a man of prayer. How about us? Are we worshiping God in the midst of many adversities, difficulties, pains and wounds? Or are we unable to worship Him because of our difficult circumstances? If we are failing to give praise and worship to God, it is because our prayer life has problems. Those who don’t pray cannot worship God in spirit and in truth. We cannot worship God in a lot of difficulties and temptations because we cannot be strengthened by the Lord's abundant love and because we have no heart of fearing the Lord. Therefore, we must prepare for Sunday worship with prayer from Monday. And on the Lord’s day, we should enter His house and worship Him (v. 7). This is the life of walking the Lord's way straight.
Third and last, the life of walking the Lord’s way straight is “the life of joy.”
Look at Psalms 5:11 – “But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.” What is joy? When I was thinking about joy that the Christians should feel and experience, I thought about Jesus. I wondered if there is a word in the Bible that says, ‘Jesus was joyful’ or ‘Jesus rejoiced.’ But in my short knowledge of the Bible, I couldn’t remember. Instead, the word that came to mind was “a voice came out of heaven” when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, “You are My beloved Son, in Your I am well-pleased” (Lk. 3:22). When I think about why Heavenly Father was pleased with His begotten Son, I think it was because Jesus obeyed the Heavenly Father's will until he died at thecross. Then, I asked myself again whether Jesus was joyful or Jesus rejoiced in His life on earth, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. In human perspective, Jesus lived a miserable life, a poor life, a sad life… However, I think Jesus lived a life of joy in Heavenly Father’s perspective. There may not be the “joy” we think of in our lives that our Heavenly Father is pleased with. But the real joy we must experience is Heavenly Father's joy. That Heavenly Father's joy is also the joy of the Son Jesus. If we walk the way of Jesus straight by living the life of prayer and the life of worshiping God, we can live by experiencing the joy of God. This joy is the joy of all the saints walking straight on the Lord's way (“let all … be glad”) and also eternal joy (“ever sing for joy”) (v. 11). The object of this joy is only the “Lord” (“those who love your name may rejoice in you”) (v. 11). We who consider only the Lord as our joy will walk the way of the Lord straight, faithfully, and to the end, as we rejoice because of the Lord who takes great delight in us, even if no one in the world can understand us.
Long time ago, when my church first cell members went out in front of the church main sanctuary to sing a special song during the Wednesday night prayer meeting, I saw my youngest daughter running forward a little later and trying to hold my wife’s hand. As I looked at it, I thought of this: 'If I want to walk the Lord's way straight, I must hold the Lord's hand. I really need the Lord to hold my hand so that I can walk the Lord's way straight.' When the Lord holds our hands even if there are many windbreaks, adversities, and difficulties, then we can walk faithfully and straight on the way of the Lord until the day He calls us to heaven. I hope and pray that we all can walk the Lord’s way which is the way of prayer, the way of worship, and the way of joy without wavering to the right or to the left but straight.
With thanksgiving to the Lord for His grace that is making the lonely wilderness to the garden of solitude,
James Kim
(As I am experiencing God’s people in my heart after I sang the Korean hymn 470 with my hands raised up and cried out to God together with my church members)