THE REQUEST CONCERNING MY STEPS

Psa. 119:133

Morning Meditation 8/26/2015

Verse 133 says, "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."

The guidance of the Lord is of primary interest in the Christian's life. I am afraid that many christians do what they want to and at the end of the day say, "God how do you like that?" As if they expected God to rubber stamp what they do. If you do that, you are operating on the same principle as the world. God does not rubber stamp what He does not order.

The Psalmist clearly declares his need and desire of the Lord's guidance. Let's look at three things about this request.

THE ORDER REQUESTED

The Psalmist says, "Order my steps in thy word." The word "order" translates the Hebrew word "kuwn" and means, "to establish, to fix, make ready, direct toward (moral sense), to arrange."

We are not born in this world to know the right way for our lives. Adam's transgression fixed that for the whole human race. For a person to be right with his Creator, he must know what He wants. So we have the wise request to "Order my steps in thy word."

This is not the same as saying, "Lord make me do right whether I want to or not." There are those who would like for God to turn them into robots so that they would not have to make moral choices. Right choices get one into trouble with those around the ones who make wrong choices. The right always exposes the wrong and the right suffer criticism and persecution from those who are made uncomfortable. So there are those who don't want to make choices that get them into trouble.

The Psalmist is wise and solicits God's help in the ORDER of his life. We need to do the same. When we were saved we were brought into a spiritual kingdom and Jesus is King in His kingdom. We need His guidance. We need His ORDER for our lives. Next lets look at,

THE GUIDE TO BE USED

The Psalmist says, "Order my steps in thy word." The Word of God is the standard of conduct for the Christian. The Word of God is under attack. The many different translations that have flooded the market is a front line attack. Is the Bible the verbally inspired inerrant Word of God? Now think for just a moment. If God so inspired and superintended the writing of the Bible so that there are no mistakes, how can there be scores of translations out there that do not say the same thing?

What does the Bible claim for itself? Now some will pass this off with some remark or the wave of the hand. It is easy to bury ones head in the sand and be intellectually dishonest in this matter. 2 Peter 1:21 says, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Now lets notice what this verse says:

1.The Word of God is not declaring the will of man: "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man." That is a simple and understandable statement, i.e., the Word of God is not man's idea.

2..The ones who spoke the Word are called "holy men of God." God is the one who calls them holy. They are not men whose denomination gave them sainthood or exalted them to a position of honor. God said they were holy men.

3.These holy men of God Spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The word "spake" means, "to utter by speech." I believe this means that most of the Scriptures were vocal utterances that were later written down and recorded because the truths declared are timeless. They are for all generations.

4.The words "were moved by the Holy Ghost" translate "phero" and means, "to move by bearing; move or, to be conveyed or borne, with the suggestion of force or speed of the mind, to be moved inwardly, prompted." Peter is saying here that the holy men were moved inwardly, prompted by the Holy Spirit to give out the Word of God. This makes holy men INSTRUMENTS but not the SOURCE of the Word of God. Peter says, "though men were used to give us God's Word, the SOURCE was God Himself. Therefore, we call it The Word of God.

What does the Bible claim for itself? Paul says in 2 Tim. 3:16-17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." What do these verses tell us?

1.The Bible is called Scripture and is said to be given by inspiration of God. The word "Scripture" translates "graphe" and means, "a writing, a thing written, the Scripture, used to denote either the book itself, or its contents." This is a clear reference to the Word of God in its written form.

2.The words "is given by inspiration" translate "theopneustos" and literally means "God breathed." It might be compared to our breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. When we inhale we take in oxygen when we exhale we breath out carbon dioxide. God breathed into the spiritual lungs of the men of God His Word and when they exhaled it came out through the writing of the verbally inspired Scriptures.

3..There are four things for which the Word of God is profitable. They are listed: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. These are very important factors in the Christian's life.

4.What will these things accomplish? Verse 17 tells us the goal of the Scriptures: "That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." The word "perfect" translates "artios" and means, "fitted, suitable, correct." Who is Paul talking to? He is talking to Timothy, a man of God. Who does Timothy minister to? To the Church, i.e., a group of scripturally baptized believers assembled under covenant together to worship. The man of God is fully equipped with the Scriptures so that there is nothing that He will need to know to minister to believers that is not found in the Bible. This is the reason that the historical confessions of faith state that the "holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice."

Now back to the Psalmist's request: "Order my steps in thy word." This is a request that acknowledges that the Word of God is God's primary source for guidance. The word "steps" is put for life. We move through life a step at a time. A step is one measure of distance in the journey of life. The Psalmist is saying that He needs God every step of the way. God is honored when one takes his life that seriously, i.e., that one cannot take one step and be right without God.

I believe that Satan has very skillfully taken and neutralized the authority of God's Word through the many different translations. If you have two translations and they differ on the correct translation of a word in the Textus Receptus (the Received Text) from which the King James Bible is translated, both cannot be right. Both may be wrong but both can't be right. There may be many synonyms in our English language that are partially right when translating a word from Hebrew or Greek to English. Since the Bible is VERBALLY (the very words God chose to use) inspired Word, then a Bible believing translator is bound by the truth of VERBAL INSPIRATION to choose the word that is the nearest match for the original Word, even if that word in our language is not used as much as another synonym that could be used. I do not believe translators have the liberty to deviate from absolute accuracy, for the sake of so-called easy readability, where it can be obtained. What if a modern translation is easier for you to read? If they have not maintained accuracy of translation FROM THE RIGHT TEXT you still do not have the Word of God no matter how easy it is to read or how sincere the translators. All the modern translations depart from the right text and rely on texts that are not reliable. This includes the New King James in my estimation. Don't let Satan snow you in the matter of translations. You have the best translation in your King James Bible (of course I speak to English speaking people). If you don't understand it, get on your knees. Help can be obtained there in the form of ILLUMINATION. Then the Psalmist speaks of,

THE DOMINION TO BE AVOIDED

He says, "and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." David prayed in Psalm 19:13, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." David recognized that he needed God's help. The word "presumptuous" means "proud, arrogant." It speaks of willful bold sins. David knew how easy it is to fall into an attitude where one just goes ahead and does what he knows to be wrong. It is good when we see a possibility and take measures to avoid it in advance. If David had done this in the case with Bathsheba he would never have committed that bold and presumptuous sin.

In our text the Psalmist goes further than the big sins and sees "any iniquity" as being something that could dominate ones life. John Gill says, "It is a sad thing to be enslaved to any lust or sin, be it what it will: sin reigns over wicked men even unto death; and it oftentimes has great power over good men, puts them upon doing that which is evil, and hinders them from doing that which is good; it carries them captive, and threatens to have the ascendant over them, and rule in them, which they deprecate; and such a prayer may be the prayer of faith, since it is promised 'sin shall not have the dominion over you; Rom. 6:14.'"

"I had rather be a prisoner to man all my life than be a bondage to sin one day. He says not, Let not this and the other man rule over me; but 'let not sin have dominion over me.' Well said! There is hope in such a man's condition as long as it is so." --Michael Bruce, 1666.

Again the Psalmist says, "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." May the Lord bless us to see the need to make this our desire and prayer that we my glorify Him in our lives.

In Christ

Bro. White