Bible Reading: Psalms 86:8-13,15
Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvellous deeds; you alone are God.
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.
You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
A Reflection:
As soon as a baby learns to crawl, it seems they also learn to climb up the stairs. The problem is they don’t learn to climb down the stairs quite as quickly. And so we have stair gates.
Boundaries are important as children grow, they keep them safe and give them structure, but there comes a time when children should have learnt how to navigate the pitfalls and dangers, and the boundaries can be removed. The hope for any parent is that their child will learn good values and life skills so that, as adults, they will know how to live responsibly as they make their way in the world.
Whether or not a child goes on to make wise choices as an adult in uncertain, but what is more certain is the constant love of the parent for the child. The same is true between us and God, as King David had discovered in his life.
At different points in his life, David had wallowed in the depths. Some of these times were problems of his own making, some of them were because of the actions of others. Whatever the cause, though, God had delivered him and David had discovered the compassion and grace of God, who he knew was slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.
It was with the knowledge of both his own failings and of God’s love, that David’s prayer to God was, ‘Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth, give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name’.
David’s God is our God; he has delivered us from the depths of sin and from the realms of the dead through his Son Jesus. As such we are now no longer subject to law but are free to live within the grace of God. But, like children who have learnt to differentiate between right and wrong and to avoid situations that will cause us to fall, let us then say with David, ‘Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth’ as we navigate the path of life. Let us also pray for an undivided heart so that we choose to do what we know is right.
Pray:
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
Amen
It is the cry of my heart to follow you