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10th August 2024
SaturdayReflection
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'John Piper shares'
founder and teacher of desiringGod.org
Summer Psalms
Scripture: Psalm 23
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One of the greatest privileges of having two good eyes is that we can read God's word.
But there is another set of eyes that have to be opened if the glory of God's word is to shine in our hearts - namely, the eyes of our hearts.
Well, I had not seen with the eyes of my heart the little phrase "for his name's sake" in verse 3.
"He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."
The idea that God might be leading me to do right for his own sake was so foreign to me until I was 22 that I would read those words with no feeling at all for what they meant.
Before we zero in on the words "for his name's sake," let's make sure we understand what it is that God does for his name's sake.
"He leads me in paths of righteousness."
First, we must not think that this is something so automatic we don't need to pray for it.
Look at David's prayer in Psalm 25:4-5:
4 Teach me your ways, O Lord; make them
known to me.
5 Teach me to live according to your truth, for
you are my God, who saves me.
I always trust in you.
In Psalm 23, God has answered this prayer - God has led him in paths of righteousness.
But how does God do this?
In my experience I have never seen a visible manifestation of God going before me at a fork in the road.
Nor have I ever heard an audible voice that was clearly God's telling me which decisions to make.
But I think David would answer the question, How does God lead? by saying,
"He has revealed a lot about the paths of righteousness in his word."
Isn't this the point of Psalm 119:105:
"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," and
Psalm 119:9 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy word."
So one answer to the question, How does God lead me in paths of righteousness? is:
He reveals what those paths are in his word for us to read and obey.
But this answer is only half of what goes into God's leadership.
By itself the Bible would not keep us on track.
For two reasons: one is that not every decision we have to make is covered by a command in the Bible.
Some paths are clearly wrong and some are clearly right, but many are not clear.
We have hundreds of little and some big decisions like this every week.
The other reason that the Bible alone is not adequate is that even when a specific path is commanded, it is not just the movement along that path that is important, but also the spirit in which we move, and the motivation that prompts us.
A path of righteousness is a right path followed with the right attitude.
But the Bible by itself will not change our attitude.
This is why David said God leads us in paths of righteousness and why Paul said in Romans 8:14,
"All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God."
We must not only have revelation from outside, namely, the Bible; we must also have transformation from the inside by the Holy Spirit.
The word of God and the Spirit of God together provide the leadership we need.
Paul said in Romans 12:2:
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may know and approve what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
In order to walk in paths of righteousness we must become new.
Otherwise we may try to follow righteousness but will only become hollow formalists - people who try to go through the external motions of righteousness but lack the joy and love and peace that energize and guide the saints.
The word and the Spirit team up to transform the mind, and in that way God leads us in paths of righteousness.
He gradually shapes our thinking and moulds our emotions, so that when there is no explicit command in the Bible to guide us, we weigh all the considerations with the wisdom and the love of God, and we are drawn to the path of righteousness.
So I have learned to do like David: meditate on God's word day and night and pray continually for the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and mind.
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
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John Piper
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God:
Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy
More
For His Name's Sake
Now we can ask, Why does God do all this?
Why reveal his word and send his Spirit to lead us in paths of righteousness?
The answer in verse 3: "For his name's sake."
A few weeks ago I was talking to one of my really fine former students who's in graduate school now.
I told him I was preaching a three-week series on the fact that God does everything for his own glory, we need to bring our lives into alignment with that goal, and it is not selfish but loving for God to act this way.
His response was: Are you still talking about that?
That was your theme when you came to Bethel six years ago.
My answer was, "Bill, everywhere I look in Scripture I see this theme. It really is central."
But for 22 years I had been so deaf to this loud theme running through the Bible that I had never even heard the last phrase of verse 3 in Psalm 23: "for his name's sake."
But then I discovered the greatest theologian our country has ever produced: Jonathan Edwards.
And I read A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World.
This book, along with others, opened my eyes and ears to the most glorious theme of Scripture, which unifies all its parts - that God is absolutely sovereign and in all things is at work to display his glory for the enjoyment of his people.
So it is no longer surprising to me, like it was back then in those early days of discovery, that right here in the middle of a psalm, world famous for the joy and comfort and refreshment it has brought to man, is the signature of the sovereign God: "for his name's sake."
This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
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