KEEP STEADY MY STEPS ACCORDING TO YOUR PROMISE ...

Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
And let no iniquity get dominion over me. Psalm 119:133


Oh that I might so keep every step, yea, every thought, every word, and every deed of my life that they would all be within the bounds of righteousness.
Yet by this plea, I confess that apart from the promise of the Lord, I have no steadiness, nay I have no steps.
So unsteady am I in my sinfulness that I surely surrender my thoughts, words and deeds according to the dominion my sinful pride, and therefore my pride’s master – Satan Himself.
Only my sinful pride could cast such a convincing illusion for me, that I might steadily order my steps apart from the Lord or His promises.
Only my sinful pride could cast a dominating illusion that I have no iniquity,
that I am not iniquitous, before I take my first step, my first thought, word or deed into all that is iniquity’s dominion.
For I am an iniquitous man, a man who is not even, not level, not right with the Lord or His will for me.
No, only under the dominion of my sinful pride’s illusions could I believe that I can step, think, speak, or do my life as if I were on even ground, level ground before the Lord.
Yet the Psalmist’s plea is that of one who has stepped under the dominion of his sinful pride and has found only unsteadiness all around him and in him.
How is it O Lord, why is it O blessed Lord, that I must ever be in the consequences of my own unsteadiness, ever be in the midst of my deep guilt before I fully see the truth of my iniquity, my infinite unevenness with You?
Surely it is in the depths of my iniquity that I see the blessedness of Your promises and I crave the dominion of Your grace.
Surely it is only in the sinking sand that I crave, that I cry out for Your keeping of me that I might stand, I might step and be steady in You.
Whatever the answer, I find that I am ever in the sinking sand, ever iniquitous in all my steps and ever in need of Your promises to steady me, yea, to save me.
So I turn to He who met me on my level – Jesus Christ.
For He is Your promise made flesh.
He is Your keeping of me as He descended to take, to keep His steps according to Your promises to me.
He is Your promise that came to step into my place, into my iniquity, into my sin, into my punishment, and into my death so that He might have dominion over me and my steps.
His resurrection reveals to me that He how great and glorious is His dominion.
His resurrection reveals that in Him, I shall be made anew and my footsteps reordered by His grace.
In Holy Baptism, He has united my every step to Himself and give me new steps of faith by His grace.
In His Blessed Meal of His Body and Blood, surely He steps into the humble sanctuary with all of heaven, that there exercises His blessed dominion of grace that I might be kept, and there for journey on, step by step in the land of the living.
Who am I that I should have such a God, such a Lord, such a Savior – that though I be unsteady in all my ways – He remains ever steady and ever steadying me in His steadfast love for me?
Blessed the Lord! Bless the Lord with me all you saints of His! Bless the Lord!
Keep, O Keep, steady my steps according to Your promise blessed Lord, that I may ever live in the dominion of Your grace, Your Christ and mine. Amen.