"The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand" (Ps. 37:23-24, ESV).
I have known many who have felt uncomfortable with the thought that God directs our lives. It strikes at the very heart of human autonomy. We want absolute freedom to think and do as we please, but such freedom doesn't exist in the human experience. No one picks their parents, the day of their birth, the color of their eyes or hair. None of us picked where we would be born, where we would attend school, or the opportunities that we would have.
We didn't have absolute freedom in our past, we don't have it in our present, and we will never have it in our future. There are so many forces outside of our control in life that we often have to change our minds. But God isn't driven along by outside forces. He never has to change his mind. As David reminds, he has established our steps.
When we can have confidence in the reality that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, the Lord will keep us from falling to our destruction. He will uphold us in his grace and mercy. The knowledge that God has ordered our steps, that he has actively decreed certain events to transpire in our lives, as well as allowed other events to occur, should be an encouragement to us. If God, in love, set our feet on the path of finding him, then it is certain that he will not allow our feet to wander too far off of that path. He welcomes us to delight in him as he delights in us.
Thus, what we poses in the Lord is the freedom to love him, because he first loved us. His love is unchanging, unflinching, never-fading, always-enduring, whole-hearted, unconditional love. Even if we fall--like David did into grievous sin--the Lord will not let us be destroyed. He may chasten us (and he will), but he will not let us be swept away. His hand, his strong and mighty hand, will hold us up, and not let the flood waters of judgment sweep us away.
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