Nothing Separates From His Love

The NASV renders Psalm 37:23 and 24 in this manner, “the steps of a man are established by the Lord and He delights in his way. When he falls he will not be hurled head long, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” Such verses arouse in us all sorts of inquiry and speculation. On one hand, if God is ordering all of my steps, what role do I play? Why should I stress the choices or seek to do that which is pleasing? Conversely, can God really be blamed for my “mis-steps”, the deliberate choices to please self, bypass the right, and go my own way? Is that really God’s plan? What of the pain, the hardship, the stress, the loneliness, the grief, and loss? Are they too, objects to be laid at His feet and written off as Divine disinterest? At the heart of this issue lies the theological land mine of Divine Sovereignty (God makes all the plans) and human free will (I have a role to play). Two statements may help bring clarity to this issue.

Divine Sovereignty includes both a foreknowledge of all events, human decision, and subsequent dilemmas but is committed to the freedom of the human will. In other words, God does indeed allow us to exercise our will and choose our path, but His Divine knowledge knows what path we will take, and though disapproving or disheartened by our choice, the act of His sovereignty insists on free will. This leads to a second point of clarification.

Divine Sovereignty allows us to make choices and pursue paths that are not God’s best, but Divine Love establishes our steps along the way. The picture of establishing our steps portrays God trying to make certain that our paths, however crooked, difficult, or misguided they may be, are as safe for passing as possible. He provides instructions, pointers, warnings, and companions to assist us, even when we make the wrong choice. From the perverted picture of an angry God lurking along the path ready to strike down the wayward traveler with plagues and befalling trial, David knows God to be the One who even tries to make his wrong choices work out for his benefit. He establishes OUR STEPS. He allows us to choose them, and then He works to establish them. And when we fall, because we will fall when left to our own humanity, we will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the One who holds our hand.

Psalm 103:7 says that God “made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” It is again a sign of spiritual immaturity to reduce God to His acts, acts of blessing or judgment, acts of reward or imposing penalty. We must know Him in His ways. One of His ways is to love us like a father loves his children, and even when the path being walked is not wise, He runs ahead and clears and prepares the path and when we fall, He picks us up! This is the God from whose love we cannot be separated.