“He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” – Psalm 23:3

IN OUR PURSUIT of God we are prone to forgetting the gospel of grace whereby we were called unto, and indeed continue in – not by the subtle trappings of works performed through the law which Paul had to contend sharply with the churches of Galatia: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?…Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Paul was perplexed as to how such a people who were running well could have been hindered from staying on course with the truth. Notice how Paul says they were “running well” (5:7). They once brought joy to Paul’s heart as he witnessed the power of God’s saving grace in their lives, but then in verse 16 and 25 he is careful to emphasize a walking (steady and firm pace of understanding the elementary principles of the Faith) in the Spirit; Paul was anxious for them to be led back (by God’s grace) to where they left off.

Paul reasons that if any of us subject ourselves to the yoke of the law, Christ is of no advantage to us, and that’s why he announced to the Galatians that they were ‘severed from Christ’ and had ‘fallen from grace’ because many reverted – after having been regenerated – to counting themselves righteous through the keeping of the law. This is not implying one can ‘lose’ their salvation as so many falsely build their dogma around to defend and propagate. That being the case, Paul would never have addressed them as brothers (in this particular context, not in another instance when he was speaking in regards to his kinsmen in Romans 9:3); Paul is reminding them of the foundations of their standing by grace, and how further on in Chapter 5:16 he exhorts them to “…walk by the Spirit [not through the strength of the law that only aggravates the power of sin], and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh”. It was the joy of their salvation that they had lost, not their salvation itself. It is never by our own strength and effort – which we can slip into so easily – that we grow in faith and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. If our Adversary cannot deter us from in front, he will attempt to drive us to extremes from behind; the flesh within us will distort and pervert the essence of the Gospel, where it becomes the Gospel and; Christ and; Christ’s righteousness and ours – that’s the subtlety of it. There is no ‘and’; it is Christ alone, by faith alone, through grace alone. This is why we need to be often reminded of this Amazing Grace that we so often sing but become so dim as to what Newton’s hymn really implies. Walking in the light of this truth – that sets us free – is to walk in the Spirit; it is always the Holy Spirit’s work to magnify and appropriate the centre of the Gospel – the efficacy of the cross of Christ – the very power of God unto salvation and the continuance therein. Continual abiding on the foundation of grace is what produces the fruit of works that glorifies God, not out of fear where we are compelled to obey God, or else our salvation is jeopardised – a mentality that is so prevalent today because so many leaders misunderstand the Gospel and what it means to continue in this grace, therefore leading many astray into paths of self-works that undeniably breeds self-righteousness. “He who believes in Me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37) reveals the inevitability of the inward work of God’s grace; as sin always seeks an outlet unto destruction, so God’s super abounding grace channels itself in a way that manifests His glory, bringing honour to His name, as what was once severed is now reconciled, and what was once breached (because of the nature and heredity of sin) is now healed and raised beyond our original state of glory.

God is merciful to reel us back from our paths of self righteousness (that appear so right to our own understanding) to be led in His paths of righteousness. We are likened to sheep, as Isaiah states, and we don’t cease to be so once regenerate. How often we foolishly stray, and yet God in His grace faithfully restores our souls in true fellowship and communion with Him. Again, we are mercifully rescued from out of our perverse paths of self righteousness and led into His paths of righteousness. How often we need to be reminded that we are continually and sufficiently clothed in Christ’s righteousness, and that anything we do can never improve our standing before God; we are just as secure, loved and accepted now in Christ as we will be in heaven – all because of God’s doing, not ours as we are inclined to think so at times.

It is God that leads us in His paths of righteousness, and this is the summit that David implies in Psalm 23:3 – not just being led in right paths per se. Psalm 5:8 sheds light on this verse: “Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness.” David had as much a grasp of justification by faith as Abraham: “And to the one who does not work but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the One to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Romans 4:5-8). David was not content to have a form of religion, nor was he even curious to know about God’s ways but to personally know them; he implored the Lord: “Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me…” (Psalm 25:4-5). David knew that had the law been executed in regards to his sins, his life should have been devoted to destruction; the Law of God mediated through Moses excused no-one. So why was David made an exception? There is only one reason, and only one: for the purpose of God’s mercy to be shown – “I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy” and to show that the purpose of God stands despite our sin and failings; it is God’s covenant with man, man who is weak and unable to render unto the Lord what is acceptable in His sight apart from the sheer might of God’s grace working powerfully within us to perform His will. Where then is anyone’s place to boast that they have kept their side of the bargain? After all is said and done, we can attribute nothing to our standing or perseverance; it is all of grace – ‘but for the grace of God’. Left to ourselves we would fail miserably and disgracefully to the point of no return. It is all the Lord’s doing, and many of us are acutely aware in certain and unforgettable situations in our life of the power of God keeping us in His ways; we know we should have deserted God had He removed His protection and power – and if we deny that then we know nothing of the deceitfulness and wickedness of our own hearts just like Peter who was adamant he would never deny Jesus, even to the point of death. There will come a time when God will unveil His hidden interventions of mercy in our lives that we are totally unaware of at present.

“He leads me in the paths of righteousness” It is the Lord Who leads us in the right way as Psalm 32:8 implies: “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” He instructs and counsels us with great care and detail, and that isn’t to merely ‘point’ us in the right direction with a code of instructions; thank God He is not just our teacher but our Saviour – the cults will propagate all kinds of self-improvement schemes (which is rampant within modern Christian literature) and still not resolve man’s greatest need. Philosophy knows to some extent what is wrong with humanity but completely fails in prescribing and administering the remedy. Our Great Shepherd is not just an example to us, but the One Who heals the diseases of our soul.

Notice the emphasis in Psalm 23 in the first three verses and verse five that God performs, not man: “He makes me lie down in green pastures…He leads me beside still waters…He restores  my soul…He leads me in paths of righteousness…You prepare a table before me…You anoint my head with oil…” It is God’s action Who keeps us in His ways; we may stray but the discipline and chastening of the Lord brings us back to His side. I remember hearing of a shepherd who repeatedly rescued a wondering sheep from all kinds of danger, until eventually the shepherd deliberately broke its legs. As cruel as it may seem, in the long run it was an act of mercy in preserving a life from destruction; the sheep, broken of its harmful self-will, learned to stay near the shepherd. God may wound us to teach us and will break us until we learn to walk close with Him. Is it wrong? Does it violate the human will when God intervenes in such a way, or have we always assumed that God’s grace in saving a sinner does not result in a person’s will liberated to deem it foolish by not ‘choosing’ Christ? It is all of grace. Not even our persevering ‘saves’ us as some are prone to think; there’ll be no-one at the resurrection believing they made it to heaven because they chose not to sin or because they chose not to pursue such a path for fear of ‘losing their salvation’. If that is the position then grace is no longer grace and we are inclined to slip back into the path of self-righteousness to earn God’s favour and merit.

Of course, this is not to imply that we just sit back, ‘lay in the groove’ and remain passive – nothing of the sort! The apostle Paul preached grace in such a way that many were accusing him of antinomianism (license to sin because grace will abound), but he preached nothing but the Gospel as given by revelation, and where grace was announced, the devil was sewing his tares – so close to the truth, appearing as the truth but in essence nothing but a perversion of the truth. There must be balance in all of this, and all of Scripture must be taken into account. Paul stated to work our salvation with fear and trembling, but he didn’t stop there – he went on to say, “for [and that word for is the key] it is God Who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”(Philippians 2:12-13). Paul was destined to be an apostle and compelled to preach the Gospel, like a ‘fire shut up in his bones’ – “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”(1 Corinthians 9:16) Although Paul was fashioned, equipped and empowered to proclaim the Gospel, he still laboured – worked out what God had worked within – “For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29) – that’s the key to obtaining a balanced understanding in this matter. Scripture cannot be anymore explicit than that. We see a resemblance in John’s 1^st epistle verse 3: “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” That’s not implying that we do the work of purifying; it is rather the evidence that if the seed of God’s saving grace has been planted in the heart, then one inevitably grows in holiness. It is God’s power compelling us to perform, and so our salvation is commenced by His grace, continued by His grace and completed by His grace; it is His grace alone from beginning to end.

The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things below nor above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo,
Or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace;
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

(‘A Debtor To Mercy Alone’ by Augustus Montague Toplady)

The latter part of the twenty-third Psalm and third verse, ‘For His names sake’ is worthy of notice and for the reason of why we are led in the paths of righteousness. It is not according to our righteousness, or to our credit of how much we ‘strain forward to what lies ahead’, but His mercy and glory alone:

“For My name’s sake I defer My anger, for the sake of My praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake I do it, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:9-11).

“For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake…” (1 Samuel 12:22)

“Yet He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make known His mighty power” (Psalm 106:8).

“For Your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!” (Psalm 143:11).

“And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for My name’s sake, not according to your to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord” (Ezekiel 20:44).

And the most explicit and prominent passage is the promise God made of putting His Spirit within His chosen people: “…Thus says the Lord God: it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you…” (Ezekiel 36:22-32).

The last passage quoted echoes the promise given in Jeremiah 31:33 (also quoted in Hebrews 8), “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Of course there is the inclusion of ‘our sake’ (for our benefit) as the Scriptures declare, but ultimately and primarily it is for the glory of God. It wounds our pride as we tut and shake our heads in disapproval over Israel’s waywardness only to receive an equal verdict ourselves; we are just as in much need to be saved from our depravity (a word we despise and loathe today, because we believe there is some innate goodness that warrants the mercy of God), or do we self-righteously excuse ourselves from what Scripture accurately discloses about us: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” How we need to be saved from our self-righteousness – the very thing that condemned the Pharisees – into embracing Christ’s righteousness alone. The whole world lies accountable before God and those who try to justify themselves by the works of the law – “There is no-one who does good, none who are righteous…” as Paul quotes in Romans 3:10-18. There is only One Who has perfectly fulfilled the law in our stead and only One Whose righteousness accounts for our unrighteousness: the God-Man, Christ Jesus – the Great Shepherd of our souls, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. God does not change or go back on His word, oath, covenant and promise; thank God our eternal salvation does not depend on our perseverance – “for My name’s sake I have redeemed you, for My name’s sake I lead you in My paths of righteousness, and for My name’s sake I will complete the good work I began within you.”

Soli Deo Gloria.