Psalm 25:10, “All the paths of YHWH are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.”
I came across this well-loved verse this morning and the above image almost immediately came to mind. What does it mean for us to “keep [YHWH’s] covenant and His testimonies”? Well, ultimately it means to be “in Christ.” To be united by faith to the one who is the perfect fulfillment of all God’s covenants and testimonies.
Another way to say this is that it means, by grace, receiving Jesus as our Lord and God and Savior and Life, and–having received Him–to be progressively formed by grace into His image, the image of self-giving love….these are the two Great Commandments on which all the Law and the Prophets hang. To know and love YHWH with all IS to receive the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord and God and Life, and to love neighbor as self IS to give ourselves wholly as God gave Himself to us in Christ.
So if we are in Christ, if we are daily and desperately receiving all that God is for us in His Son as our only hope for this life and the next, then we are among those who “keep His covenant and His testimonies.” And this then means that ALL the paths the Lord may lead us on are marked by steadfast love and faithfulness……ALL of His paths…the hard and the easy, the ones that pass through the shadow and the ones that climb into the pastures, ALL of His paths are paved crimson with His steadfast love and faithfulness. A life spent in Christ is a life authored by divine love, a life spent under the invincible care of Him who “works ALL things (and paths) together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes” (Rom.8:28).
We may not see how a particularly painful path was an expression of “steadfast love and faithfulness” until the wounded hands of our king turn us around to survey the valley of this life from the heights of Zion….but since we KNOW it will one day be clear, may we be given grace to hold onto this truth while we still walk in the shadowlands.
