This weekend is Father’s Day and so I want to look at several verses in Psalm 37:23-24. When Jesus called his disciples he used a certain phrase, “Come, follow me.” Those who responded became his disciples. Notice that this same thing is happening today, 20 centuries later. Of course, Jesus is not physically here calling people. But, the Holy Spirit is speaking to the hearts of individuals and through the lives of believers to call out to this world, “Come, follow me.”
Yet, this call to follow Jesus would be like asking a child to follow a professional rock climber. Without help we are unable to follow Jesus. Today’s passage makes it clear that those who respond to the call to follow Jesus are not left to do it in their own strength. Rather, they are helped by God Himself.
Verse 23 starts out by referring to a “good man.” The word translated as good is a term that can also mean strong, as in strong for battle. Because the context is not about physical strength it gets translated as “good” as in morally strong. Perhaps it may be better to see it as strong in faith because that is what is in contention. It is clearly a righteous man who trusts in the Lord that is in view. In fact the whole chapter is a treatise regarding the righteous and the unrighteous. So this is a good man, a man strong in his faith toward God.
We see the Apostle Paul speaking of this in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He has been a strong warrior for the Lord. The good fight is not fought with physical strength, but with spiritual strength.
Our battle is not with atheists and other religions. Rather, our battle is first of al with our own self. The flesh has a powerful way of justifying its lusts and desires. If we do not restrain it, it will pull us down into a quagmire of serving self. We also battle against the corrupting influence of this world. Its culture, institutions, systems and powers are difficult obstacles to overcome in the arena of faith. Also, we have a spiritual enemy in the devil and his evil spirits. They operate mainly through deception and temptation. These three areas of Self, World, and the Devil take a man who is strong for battle.
Of course, none of us are able to conquer these three areas. Only Jesus has been able to do that. He is the ultimate warrior. He has done what none of us could do. However, this enables us to follow him. When we stick close to Jesus and put our steps into his steps we will be able to have victory in these areas. We will talk more about this later.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” So in Psalm 37 we are told that the Lord “orders” the steps of a man who trusts him. Our paths or steps are a picture of the decisions and actions that we do in life. Put in order we walk a certain way. Now there really are only two ways in life. God’s way will lead us to life. But “my” way will lead me to death. Even if “my” way involves following someone that we look up to, other than Jesus, it is still headed in the same direction. Yet, believers find that when we try to follow Jesus our way becomes a mixture of veering off the path of Jesus and then course correcting to get back in line. This may seem futile, but recognize that God is able to direct us through it all. He is not trying to control our every step so much as inform our every step. Do you get your directions from Jesus? Perhaps you wonder how that is possible.
We have the commands and example of Christ given to us in the New Testament. We also have a powerful instructive picture in the Old Testament that helps us to understand who Jesus really is. Thus his directions, in general, are given in the Bible. As you read the Bible you will see that Christ does not call us anywhere that he hasn’t gone himself. So if we cast off his commands and example we are trusting in our own thinking or the thinking of someone else. The problem here is not that we are thinking. Note in Proverbs 3:5-6 that we are only warned against leaning (i.e. putting all your weight upon) on our own understanding. Yes we have questions and fears. But we shouldn’t put our weight upon those things. Instead we should trust the lord. If we are truly listening, God will lead us and give direction to our path. He will not force us. He wants us to follow out of our own heart. But know this, His direction will give you sure footing on treacherous ground.
You may not be particularly excited about your life right now, but God is. He delights in our trust even when it is the trust of a spiritual babe. He knows that it will grow and become the trust of a strong man of faith in time.
He also delights in the future to which He is bringing us. He is leading us to a wonderful goal both in this life and in the life to come. He sees the end that we cannot see yet and He is delighted in anticipation of the joys we shall have together. Even when we are told the end goal, we cannot truly grasp how it will come about and what it will be like. Thus it is our joy to delight in the discovery and realization of those things along with Him.
What about our failures? Surely God doesn’t delight in us when we have failed. The reality is that none of us will make it into eternity without having failed. Only Jesus is the perfect warrior against sin. God can see over the top of our failures to the person we are going to become. He loves us, not just in spite of our failures. In fact, our trust and love become more precious and more of a delight because it is over the top of cuts and bruises in this life. Our trust becomes that much more precious, which brings us to the point of verse 24.
God promises to help us when we fall morally. He knows that our frame is frail and that we are but dust. This is precisely why He has pledged Himself to help us. If you put your trust in Jesus, you will make it, period.
We might ask our self why we fell. Did I fall because I desired sin? Or, did I fall because someone else sinned against me and I couldn’t let it go? Perhaps I merely lack skill in a particular area that he enemy is attacking and I am learning to follow Jesus. Whatever the reason, Jesus knows your difficulties. If you look to Him and cry out in the time of need, he will help you.
Notice verse 24 says that though a man fall, he will not be cast out. It is one thing to fall, but quite another to never get up again. Everyone who has fallen reaches that moment when they realize that they have survived and need to get up, and in fact must. Can you imagine if the first time you fell off your bicycle you just quit trying ever again? Though it sounds silly, what if you never got up off the ground and continued to cry and get angry for years on end? Things that don’t happen in the natural often happen spiritually. Many people are still laying in the road of some misfortune long ago and, instead of getting up, they just lay there refusing to move on. Please know this, God is not looking for an excuse to get rid of you or throw you away. He knows you will fail and He is committed to helping you get up and keep riding until you get it. However, you must want to get back up and keep trusting Him. People may cast you aside, but Jesus has pledged, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And, that means even when you fail.
In fact, the Lord promises in verse 24 to support us by His own hand. Allstate insurance can only do so much for you. But there are far better hands in this world and they are God’s. The support or bracing of the Lord holds us up so that we do not fail beyond recovery. Of course we may not want to fall and wish God would keep that from happening. However, we will never learn if God protects us from the effects of our decisions. The hand is the symbol of power. The power of God is Jesus. He is the hand of God that has come down to save us. When you trust in those hands they will lift you up through this life and through times of failure and bring you out the other side. Jesus does this through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s purpose is to come alongside of us and provide the help that we need. If this is His purpose then He is also working in believers to be such a help to other believers. I point this out because in engineering bracing is always done through triangles. Thus God supports us directly by his Holy Spirit and indirectly through other believers. This triangle of God, You, and Other believers is magnified by the multitude of relationships we can have with other believers. Let the Lord support you. If you aren’t a part of a group of believers that are trusting God and helping each other through life then you are missing a great part of how God intends to support you.
Now, the enemy wants you to stay down and refuse all help when you fall. If you let him, he will get in your head and poison your thinking. He will lead you to believe that it is impossible for God to love you because you have failed so badly. In fact he only needs to insert the idea and walk away. You will do all the work for him by trusting in what he says. Don’t do that. You will never recover from failure until you reject the lies of satan and believe the truth of God. “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” It is not over. God is not done with you yet. Trust him. Rise up and walk!