Paths of Righteousness
“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Psalm 23:3“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
This question always used to make me squirm. After all, there was so much I hoped and even planned for my future, but in reality, not a bit of it was actually up to me. In fact, the more I grew in my desire to honor the Lord with my life and follow His leading, the less comfortable I was trying to answer that question.
But there is a good answer to the question for those committed to following the Lord. As long as we follow our Shepherd, the one place we can be sure the future will find us is “the paths of righteousness.”
The Hebrew language is highly descriptive, and I find it interesting that the word for “paths” comes from a root meaning, “round.” It could mean track, rampart, or trench. Perhaps this gives us the idea that the paths of righteousness are set, specific, and enclosed. As Psalm 119:142 says,
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth.”
The paths of righteousness are not defined by majority opinion or societal norms, but by the very God who created us. He who spoke all things into existence certainly has been very clear in His Word about what He defines as right—and what He defines as wrong.
The amazing thing about the Christian life is that we don’t just have a Shepherd next to us to guide us: we have the Holy Spirit inside us, indwelling our hearts and pointing the way to keep us on the paths of righteousness.
These paths of righteousness aren’t just an abstract idea, some fluffy philosophical cloud that floats along far above the world. No, the paths of righteousness our Shepherd leads us in are right down where we live. They are paths for our feet to walk, our eyes to see, our hearts to follow. As Micah told the Israelites,
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (6:8)
We walk the paths of righteousness by wholehearted, trusting obedience. God offers us His grace, His strength and ability to do what is right, but we have to move. We have to obey. We have to take those steps of obedience and dependance in order to move along the paths of righteousness.
For His Name’s Sake
So, why does God lead us? For our good? Certainly, because He is our Good Shepherd (John 10:11) but that isn’t the reason emphasized in this verse. He leads us for His name’s sake. We tend to think of someone’s name as simply the word we use to distinguish them from other people. But the Hebrew word here brings out a deeper meaning, an association with character, which modern society has all but dropped from the definition of the word name.
In Hebrew, the word name means much more than just a word by which something or someone is identified: it has to do with character, honor, reputation, even fame or glory.
It is a point of honor to our Shepherd to watch over His sheep, to seek us as a wandering sheep, deferring the wrath He could so justly pour down on us, using His chastening rod to discipline, rather than destroy. The utter faithfulness of our Shepherd is described in 2 Timothy 2:13
“If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.”
To be faithless, or untrustworthy, would be a denial of His very nature. The trustworthiness of our Shepherd is not dependent upon whether His sheep believe He can be trusted.
So, can we trust that the paths God leads us on are the right ones? Absolutely. Even when we can’t see the reason we are walking a particular patch of dirt, we can trust that wherever our Shepherd leads us is indeed a section of the “paths of righteousness.”
Will you trust your Shepherd’s choice of path for you today?
“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth Thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.” (Psalm 37:5-6)