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Let's start with a little bit of background information on Psalm 5. Psalm 5 is a prayer that was written by David. This psalm falls into the "lament" category because it is seeking God’s help and protection. David recognizes that there is wickedness in the world, and he is crying out to God to lead him away from the wicked and onto a path of righteousness. In the ESV translation, this psalm is appropriately titled, from what we now know about the background, “Lead me in your righteousness.”
For this devotional, I want to start in verse 8. It says, “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies, make your way straight before me”.
This verse shows us that David recognizes that it is wicked in the world and that there are enemies who are deceitful with their words. David is not oblivious of the evil in the world and he also does not ignore it. As I think about this passage and how it sits with me today, I recognize that there is a lot of deceit and wickedness also going on. This isn't anything new, it's been happening for centuries!
A misconception about Christians is that we are naïve and we only focus on the good things, however from this Psalm we learn that this isn't true. We should not dwell in the bad or the wicked, but we also should not ignore it and push it under the rug. We should recognize it and we should ask God to lead us as we discern what is good and bad and pray that God makes his path obvious before us.
In verse 9, the author recognizes how hard it is to find God’s straight path. It may be easier to jump on a different path than it is to actually find and stay on God's path of righteousness. This is why we need to ask God to lead and guide us and make His path unmistakable.
God hears us when we call out to him. Sometimes, we call out to God when we are making big decisions, like where should we go to school, should we purchase this house, or should I accept this job offer... We should call out to God to lead us in those big decisions, but we should also call out to God to lead us in our daily lives.
We should also call out to God to lead us in our small, mundane decisions. We should call to God when we are discerning what is good and what is bad, and not just ignore one or the other but truly discern the difference between them.
I want to jump back up to the beginning now to wrap up this devotional. In verse 3 of Psalm 5, it says “Oh lord, in the morning you hear my voice.” In the morning is when David is praying this, not just when a big decision is placed before him but in the morning… when he starts his day and has hundreds of things ahead of him, he is asking God to lead him through them all. Since reading this Psalm last month, I have made it apart of my morning routine to just say… "God lead me today, make your path straight for me today. Make your way so obvious for me today that I can’t miss it."
By doing this, I am asking God to guide me in even the mundane, day-to-day choices that I am making. I am giving him the opportunity to lead me so that when those big decisions come up that I really need his path set before me… I not only can see it a little easier… but I also trust Him more because I have seen him work in my life on the day to day before these big decisions come up.
When we seek God's guidance and we follow God's path of righteousness, we will rejoice! Verse 11 and 12 tell us that if we follow where God leads us, we will forever sing with joy. We will find protection and God will bless us.
These are the qualities that Christians strive for, but we can’t get there without asking God to lead us. Asking God to lead us in every part of our day, whether it is big or small, is essential to our walk with Christ. When we seek God in everything that we do, we will experience his protection.