Prayer for Protection against Oppressors.
A Prayer of David.
17 Hear a just cause, O Lord, give heed to my cry;
Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips.
2 Let my [a]judgment come forth from Your presence;
Let Your eyes look with equity.
3 You have tried my heart;
You have visited me by night;
You have tested me and You find [b]nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
4 As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips
I have kept from the paths of the violent.
5 My steps have held fast to Your [c]paths.
My feet have not slipped.
As David seeks for the righteous judgment of God, he makes what seems like a pretty big claim in verse 3. That is, God has tried him and found nothing (wrong). Yet as David continues, we see why and how he can make this bold claim–by keeping away from the paths of the wicked and sticking to God’s path.
It can be pretty easy to slide down the slippery slope of this world and its ways. The deeds of men can be pretty tempting, but like David, we must remember the “word of His lips”, and hold fast to God’s paths. That is a place where we will not slip, because God walks with us every step along the way. It is a place of surety and trust, a place of confidence–not in our own abilities to be amazing pathfinders, but confidence that God will not lead us astray nor leave us along the way.
This has some very practical implications, since it isn’t something of our own that we can count on. We most definitely need to know God’s words, which we find when we spend time in the Bible, which is literally “God’s Word” to us, his creation. Second, we need to spend time in prayer, yet always with ears that are listening for His voice. Not just for ten or twenty minutes a day, but we need to be listening always.
So if we want to avoid slippery slopes and find purchase for our feet, we need to follow Paul’s advice and “pray without ceasing”, remembering that prayer is a conversation, rather than us babbling incessantly without letting God get a word in. And every day, we need to be in His word, taking time to see what God wants to speak into our lives. That’s a tall order in a culture that is unceasingly busy, but we need to move against the current and slow down to hear the words that will keep and protect us.