This fervent prayer of David will, no doubt, find an echo in our hearts. As children of God we are all anxious to walk in His paths, the saving paths which He has laid down for us in His clear Word, the paths of faith and love and holiness. But, alas! The world around us is so full of temptations, and we are so weak. If left to ourselves, we are so easily led astray from the paths leading to our heavenly Father's house.

There is great danger of our slipping and falling into sin and missing the home paths forever. But when our Lord Himself upholds us with His free Spirit and orders our steps in His blessed Word and lets no iniquity have dominion over us, then every day will see us walking steadfastly in the narrow path to everlasting life. Again, there is nothing more sensitive than the eye. The least particle of dust pains it and obstructs its vision. Just so it is with faith. The least indulgence in any known sin, the least bit of false doctrine, impairs its power to discern, and to hold us in, the paths of righteousness and peace.

But there is comfort and joy in knowing that for Jesus' sake we are most precious in the sight of God and that He will zealously guard and keep us as the apple of the eye if we abide in His paths. Let a thousand fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand in these terrible days of general backsliding from God's saving truth, we are safe in His strong keeping. No harm can come to them who entrust themselves entirely to the Lord.

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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