Walking in God's Truth

"There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. I will give thanks to you, O Lord my God with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever."
Psalm 86:8-12 (NRSV)

Following a weekend filled with a mix of revelation, nostalgia and even a little angst, I sought the Holy Spirit for some comfort and closure and came to this text during my morning meditations today. It seems the psalmist may have struggled with the call to worship while navigating some experiences, perhaps even human relationships, that sought to divide, distract or even deter that innate desire to glorify God. The psalmist cries out "give me an undivided heart to revere your name," and almost immediately, with the next breath, declares "I will give thanks to you, O Lord my God with my whole heart." I would like to suggest that the ability to immediately affirm who God is to the psalmist, despite the presence of other things attempting to divide the psalmist's heart, is rooted in a lifestyle of worship and is only possible after the Lord has answered the first prayer in this passage to "teach."

In this journey of living we will find ourselves in different seasons and sometimes we may become distracted, but we must, like the psalmist, first, ask God to "teach us." The writer of Timothy takes it even a step further by suggesting that we take authority to "study to show ourselves approved." (2 Timothy 2:15) Being instructed by God and our conviction to study is not for any personal sense of accomplishment, but rather as the psalmist puts it to enable us "walk in [God's] truth;" when the Lord teaches us it equips us with tools for living. Second we must grow to the place that we are not embarrassed, ashamed or otherwise unwilling to acknowledge times when we feel our heart being divided. We can easily allow friends, family, finances, frustrations, feelings, any number of things to divide our heart's intentions. The writer of Ecclesiastes in chapter 7, verse 29, puts it this way "See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes." Our human nature is easily compelled to be divided. Walking in God's truth however will focus us and ultimately propel us to our destined place.

Believe it, love it, live it!