You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping.
2 Samuel 22:37 (NLT)
I’m not much of a mountain climber. In fact, I’m not a mountain climber at all. I don’t even own a Patagonia coat. But about fifteen years ago I was in Chile, near the border
of Argentina, and I accidentally climbed a mountain (it was probably actually a foothill) in the Andes. My friend Rob and I were there to help plan a mission adventure for high school students. The camp we were staying at was at the foothills of the mountains and one day, Rob and I decided to do a little exploring. We kept getting higher, and pretty soon the trees and grass we had been walking through became rock and cliffs. For some reason, we kept deciding to climb, “just a little higher,” until eventually, I knew we had reached the point of no return. There was no way I was going to try and descend back down the rock face we had just climbed. So, we had to keep going until we made it to the top.
Eventually, we did get there, took a bunch of pictures, and rejoiced that we were still alive and in one piece. Then we discovered the really good news. On the backside of this foothill/mountain, we had just climbed, there was a path that led back down to the main road. And it wasn’t just a path. It was a wide path. Dirt road-like in most places. It made the trip back to our camp much easier than the trip to the mountain top.
In 2 Samuel 22, David, the king of Israel, was singing a song of praise to God. He was thanking God for all the things He had provided to David over his lifetime. And in verse 37 he sings, “You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping.”
David had spent many days and nights in the wilderness, climbing mountains and racing down them, either in pursuit of his military enemies or running from them. He did all of that in sandals or bare feet. David knew the value of wide, non-slip pathways. But David wasn’t just talking about geography. He was talking about his life. He was thanking God for leading him, for giving him divine direction throughout his life. He was thankful for God providing wide-pathways and making them clear. That’s the beauty of following God’s direction for our lives: He wants to make the path wide and keep us from slipping.
How has God made wide paths in your life? Is there a decision that you need to make where you could really use a wide, clear path forward?