Walk of Faith – Psalm 16

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. (7-8)

Psalm 16 is one of my favorites, and a history search of my blog reveals that I have written on it multiple times. However, these two verses have really struck me today, and it feels like I am reading them for the first time. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes fret about making decisions. In sermon preparation, I always want to ensure I am preaching what He wants me to preach. When I must plan a meeting, prepare a presentation, or decide on a future course of action, I sometimes get stuck overthinking whether I am doing the right thing. It is important to pray, seek the Lord, and make sure you are always following His will. Yet, we sometimes wrestle with that secret fear that maybe we are doing what we want instead of what He wants because we fear the consequences of choosing wrongly.

These two verses really take the pressure off. The truth is that God wants us to know His will more than we do, and He is not trying to trip us up or trick us into making wrong choices. On the contrary, He delights for us to know and walk in His ways. David blessed the Lord who gave Him counsel, and God still promises to give us His counsel through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. God is not trying to hide anything from you but tells you what you need to know when you need to know it if you are listening. David also said that “his heart instructed him in the night.” There is wisdom in sleeping on things and deciding in the morning. We can pray and pray without clarity, but when we sleep and let our minds relax, that is often what is needed to hear the voice of God and get His direction.

The main thing is, as David says, “to always set the Lord before you.” In short, walking in the will of God is not about intense wrestling over big life decisions but about walking with God, day in and day out. We often seek Him about the big decisions, but He wants to talk to us about everything in regular conversation. David lived as if God was always right there at His right hand because He was. Instead of worrying about the big decisions we must make next week, we should enjoy the Lord and abide in Him today. This will help us learn to recognize His voice and leadership in the small things as well as the big things. Ultimately, it is a walk of faith. David always “set the Lord” before him and trusted that God would lead and guide. The more I walk with Him today, the less I need to fret about whether I will know the right thing to do tomorrow. Worry less about the big fork you see coming down the road and focus more on keeping in step with Him today. He will let you know which way to go once you get there.