Walk a Straight Path

Psalm 5:8 – “Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.”

David needed some clear direction from God. He was in danger, and was asking for God’s leadership. His simple prayer expresses what we need from God so often, “make thy way straight before my face.” Sometimes it is not plain what God would have us do. We can be uncertain or confused about which decision or direction is best. It is not always easy to distinguish between what is our way and what is God’s way.

We need to be committed to finding God’s way. Too many people who claim to be Christians demonstrate no real interest in discovering God’s way. They act as if their way and God’s way must always be in unison. To watch them, one would think that life for the follower of Jesus should be about doing whatever we desire, whenever we choose. Obviously, this is not an accurate description of what the Christian life is about.

The Bible tells us that the way that seems right to us will lead to death. In describing the error of the unconverted, Isaiah gives us these words, “we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). In our text, David gives us a clear testimony that he wants to know God’s way, not his way. Sometimes our impatience causes us to choose our way rather than waiting on God to reveal His way. It may be that we do not have God’s way “straight before” our faces because we do not need to know it as of yet. One thing worse than going nowhere is going the wrong direction.

We also learn from this Psalm that we can expect God to lead us into His way. God has a way that He wants us to walk and live in, and we can be confident that He wants to show us that way. We can expect Him to make that way plain and obvious before us. If the path is not straight and clear, we can believe that God wants to clarify it for us.

Finally, we need to ask God to lead us and make His way straight for us. David knew that it was proper to pray and trust God to make His way “straight before” his face. God wants us to learn to lean on Him and depend on His leadership every day.