(This will be the last addition for a few weeks while we have a Summer break)
God in the Psalms No.49 – God who guides
Psa 31:3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
In a previous meditation we did consider the God who leads but the emphasis there was on God who initiates and opens a way ahead. This verse has s slightly different emphasis. Many people have written books on God’s guidance, it is a big subject and it is because when we become God’s children we want God to show us the right way ahead. We want to know how God wants us to live, what He wants us to do. Making decisions in a major part of life and Christians want to know who to marry, what career to follow, where to live, and so on. The assumption is that God will guide us. An old hymn goes, ‘Guide me O thou great Jehovah’. We want to be led. We want God to lead us.
Now when we come to this song of David’s, he first of all gives us a reason why he expects God. Notice the starting word, ‘Since’. Because you are this, he reasons, I expect you to do that. Now we have considered God as rock and fortress, a place of security and so what David is saying here is, since you are the one who provides my complete security, to ensure that that happens every moment of my life, I need to know you leading and guiding me.
Imagine the pilot of a ship approaching the land. He’s been taken out to the ship from the land. He knows the land and, more important, he knows the shape of the coast here. So he’s taken out to the ship to guide it into shore, guide it into harbour. He will guide it through the shoals, he will guide it between the rocks so that it is not harmed. He sees it safely into the shore. That’s what God’s guidance is all about. It is about guiding us in such a way that we know we are safe and secure in His hands. Security comes from knowing that we are in the hands of the all-knowing, all powerful, God of love. Put those three characteristics together and they spell ‘security’.
After God had led Israel through the Red Sea and killed Pharaoh and his army, Moses and the people sand a song of triumph. In it they sang, “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.” (Ex 15:13), They were able to sing about the future because of what had just happened in the recent past. Note the two characteristics they highlight – love and strength (or power). They feel secure because of the way God had led them out of Egypt. Now He guided them: “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Ex 13:21,22). Yes they knew God as their Guide and they felt secure.
Centuries later Nehemiah’s Levitical team declared God’s goodness: “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.” (Neh 9:19). Israel knew God was their guide. The psalmists sung of God guiding them with His truth (Psa 25:5, 43:3) and with His counsel (Psa 73:24). Isaiah prophesied that God would guide the blind so they could see (Isa 42:16) and that He would lead His people into places of refreshing (Isa 49:10). Guidance was part of the ‘restoration package’ promised by the Lord (Isa 57:18). Oh yes, God guides His people into goodness, into a place of safety and security. it is good to be guided by God!