Journal Entry // April 17, 2021
Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
Psalm 119:133 ESV
I really enjoyed reading through Psalm 119 this morning. What a great reminder and challenge to cherish the word of God and let it soak deep into your soul and prick your heart. There were so many verses that spoke to me this morning that it was difficult to choose just one. The theme that stood out to me was that I should be delighting in God’s word by engaging my heart and soul with continual meditation throughout the day.
I chose this verse because I appreciated the honest reflection of the writer. He talked a lot about the desire of his heart and soul to seek after God and his love of God’s word and precepts. Yet the writer still feels this tendency to wander and falter in his steps. Although he is engaging his heart and soul regularly, his steps still go stay. So he asks the Lord to keep him steady. To keep his steps on the narrow path of faithfulness.
But if he does stray, he asks the Lord to bring him to repentance quickly. He wants to keep his accounts short with the Lord and keep sin at bay. He does not want sin to have dominion over him. This is such a helpful picture of thinking about my daily walk with Christ. I feel as though sin has had dominion over me at various times in my life and has mastered me in critical areas. I feel this cry of the Psalmist to not give in to sin. To not give myself over to the reign of sin. To not give dominion to the evil one.
There will naturally be stray steps and times of iniquity in life and this is the thrust of the prayer. A prayer to keep me attentive to the natural everyday faltering that will come from my pride and arrogance. That God will prick my heart and soul with gentle reminders of my faltering to bring me to repentance. Daily continual repentance along with meditative delight in God’s holy word. This is the key.
It’s not a magic formula that keeps anyone perfect, but it is the essential discipline to keep my heart and soul in check and pointed toward my great and awesome God.