Walking by Faith
Psalm 141:1–10
Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely. Psalm 141:10

In the last stanza of Psalm 141 (vv. 8–10), David concludes his prayer or, we could say—making the link between prayer and worship—the time of worship ends. The service is now over. We hear the benediction and are about to go back out into the world. What should have happened to us as a result of the time spent with God? David suggests that, having been with God and having prayed to God, we should leave with our eyes still fixed on God. In the world there are dangers. Snares have been set by the wicked, traps by evildoers; but if our eyes are fixed on God, we will be able to walk safely through these many dangers and temptations.

There is a scene from Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan that has always struck me forcefully. Pilgrim is making his way up a steep path by night toward the Porter’s Lodge. He comes to a place where two lions are chained by the path, one on his right and the other on his left. He does not know they are chained, and he is afraid and about to turn back when the porter calls to him, saying, “Fear not the Lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none. Keep in the midst of the Path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.” So Pilgrim presses forward, keeping on the straight path by fixing his eyes on the porter and refusing to look at the lions lunging at him from the sides of the path. This is the image David paints. He is fixing his eyes on God as he makes his way through the dangers of life.

One day Jesus will have destroyed those dangers. Hebrews applies the words of Psalm 8 to him: “‘You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’ . . . At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see [Jesus] . . . ” (Heb. 2:7–9). Therefore, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. . . . [c]onsider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (12:2–3). This is the secret of an effective godly life as well as the point at which all true worship should begin and end.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.