“Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.”
(Psalm 17:5)

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How needful and appropriate is this prayer of David’s. The need for it is imperative because of the liability of falling that is real with each of us. Our footsteps are capable of slipping, sometimes when we do not even realize it. We are subject to venturing off the path that the Lord has for us to walk. The great heroes of the Bible, Abraham, David, Peter, and others show us this vulnerability.

Knowing our weakness should drive us to run to our refuge, the living God. Our cry to Him is to hold us up, to keep our feet on the right path. We know that we are not sufficient to keep ourselves on the right path, but our trust is in His sufficiency. We can bring this request to our Father in confidence, for David says in the next verse, “I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God” (Psalm 17:6).

It is a great comfort that God has called Himself a Shepherd of His people, the One who looks out for the welfare of our souls. He knows our situation, our mind, our heart, our weakness. We call upon Him who is perfectly acquainted with our needs.

Furthermore, He loves us with an everlasting love!

When you feel yourself slipping, when unbelief and doubts seem to have the upper hand in your mind, when temptation seems so strong and irresistible, when the darkness of the natural heart seems to be in control…cry out like David, asking God to hold you up in His paths. Only by His grace, our footsteps will not slip.

By Timothy Guess