Week 50 Lord, Show Us the Way!

By Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell (Guest Blogger)

Week 50

Scripture Readings: Psalm 143-145

Key Verse: Psalm 143:10 (NIV, Life Application Bible)

“Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God;

may your good Spirit

lead me on level ground.”

This is a psalm of David, a psalm of a time when David was falling into a deep depression and losing hope, so he appealed to God for help. He starts the psalm asking for mercy, asking for relief while his enemies are in hot pursuit.

David knew that when he needed help, he could rely on God to comfort him and support him. He knew that no matter what happened, God was in control and could help him through what might seem impossible at the time. David was in a desperate place and acknowledged his need for God, saying, “I thirst for you like a parched land.”

David calls out to God, saying, “show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” He asks for help, knowing that God wants him to lean on him in times of trouble.

And David knew that God knew what was best, so even though he asks for deliverance from his enemies and his anguish, he acknowledges that God’s will is best—he asks God to show him, to teach him to do his will, knowing that God’s will can lead him to “level ground.”

The psalm ends with: “for I am your servant.” David in all of his desperation, his fear, and his exhaustion, releases his control to God, saying, “teach me,” “show me the way I should go,” and “I am your servant.”

Are we able to let go, to humble ourselves before God, acknowledging that we don’t know everything, that we need help, that we know that he knows what we don’t know, that he can do what we can’t do, that he is our Lord and our God for whom nothing is impossible?

Are we able to lean on God and let him show us the way? Are we able to open our hearts and let him guide us where he wants us to go? Are we willing to be his servants?

May we have the faith of David that we can call on God when we are in despair. May we seek him and trust him. May we thirst for God, so that we may know him more intimately, follow him more closely, love him more deeply. Lord, show us the way.