Issue 167
Everybody outsources something. Our money we entrust to banks, building societies, financial advisers or institutions. Our cars we entrust to mechanics; our houses to builders. Our health we entrust to doctors and our wills to solicitors. At work we take advice and use consultants. Only a fool believes, and behaves as if, he or she can handle every problem, challenge or task without help.
Yet there is always a holding back; rarely, if ever, will you hand complete control of anything to someone. For one thing, it is hard to trust someone else that much, and, secondly, it is possible to abdicate responsibility by acting in such a way. I want financial advice, but it’s my money. I want career advice, but it’s my job.
I want health advice, but it’s my body. In this respect, our lives consist of many ‘ways’. Each path makes up a part of our whole journey. Money, career, family, hobbies all make up our ways, but they are not the totality of who we are. Somewhere in your mind’s eye you see your whole path. This is your journey, your life course, your road. It includes everything about you and encompasses what you do as well as all your dreams. It involves your joys, losses, mistakes and danger. Every feeling is there. It is personal to you, your character, style and habits are rolled up in this journey. At the end of your life this will have been your ‘way’.
If you want your way to be heated, anxious, jealous and angry, scorched with the heat of fretting, then you need to do little but go it alone. David, however, suggests that you completely, utterly, radically and fully outsource your way to the Lord – not in a vague theoretical manner, but by “committing your way to the Lord”. In a world of jealous envy and jousting for position, he argues that those who commit their way to the Lord will find that the rightness of their lives will shine like a new day and, rather than having to justify themselves to everyone (which is very tiring), it will be crystal clear that their lives are justifiable – illuminated by the brightest light of the mid-day sun. David isn’t arguing that a little bit of trust over a specific issue makes all the difference; he is advocating that you abandon your whole life including your work into the hands of God, throwing yourself upon him and letting him look after you completely. That way, when the small irritations arrive, you won’t need to fret. The big picture is painted, the big issue is resolved; everything else is detail.
Psalm 37
1 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For those who are evil will be destroyed,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The blameless spend their days under the LORD’s care,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
19 In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
20 But the wicked will perish:
Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,
they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be destroyed.
23 The LORD makes firm the steps
of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
25 I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be a blessing.
27 Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.
28 For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed;
the offspring of the wicked will perish.
29 The righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever.
30 The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,
and their tongues speak what is just.
31 The law of their God is in their hearts;
their feet do not slip.
32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
intent on putting them to death;
33 but the LORD will not leave them in the power of the wicked
or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
34 Hope in the LORD
and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it.
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found.
37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
a future awaits those who seek peace.
38 But all sinners will be destroyed;
there will be no future for the wicked.
39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
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Geoff Shattock
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