Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 878
Delivered on Sunday Morning, JUNE 27, 1869, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Order my steps in Your Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”- Psalm 119:133.
This is not the prayer of an unconverted man, or the cry of an awakened sinner foolishly expecting to find salvation in good works. It is the prayer of one who is saved and who knows it. The verse preceding the text shows this, for he asks to be mercifully dealt with as the Lord is accustomed to do unto those that love His name. He therefore is confident that he is one of those—that he is a partaker of Divine favor—and has the evidence of this in his love to the name of the Lord. Now, those persons who are truly saved are among the very loudest to cry out against anything like confidence in good works—you shall hear them denounce with all their hearts self-righteousness in every shape. You shall hear them preach up with might and main the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only confidence upon which a soul may rest— and yet at the same time these people are, of all others in the world, the most zealous for good works and the most earnest, themselves, to be holy and in the fear of God to adorn the doctrine of God their Savior in all things.
David was no professor of salvation by his own merits. He had been led by Divine Grace to trust in the sprinkling of the precious blood and to glory in another righteousness than his own. And yet he is indefatigable in prayer and in earnest endeavors to be purified from all faults of life and to be made in practical holiness the faithful servant of God. The prayer before us is the sighing of a saved soul after a higher state of sanctification—it is the panting of a spirit already reconciled to God, to be more perfectly conformed unto the Lord’s mind and will.
Let us carefully note each word of the text. “Order,” says David, or as some read, “direct,” “set straight,” “appoint,” “firmly establish,” or, “rightly frame my steps.” David, looking abroad upon nature, saw order ruling everywhere in Heaven above and on the earth beneath and even among the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea. He desired, therefore, to fall into rank and keep the harmony of the universe. He was not afraid of being laughed at for living by method and rule, for he saw method and rule to be Divine institutions. He did not aspire to a random life, or envy the free-livers, whose motto is, “Do whatever you like.”
He had no lusts to be his own master—he wished in all things to be governed by the superior and all-perfect will of God. In the text, King David bows in homage to the King of kings—he enlists in the army of the Lord of Hosts and asks for marching orders and Grace to obey them. Note the next word, “My steps.” He is anxious as to details. David does not say, “Order the whole of my pilgrimage.” He may mean that, but his expression is more expressive and painstaking—he would have each single step ordered in holiness—he would enjoy heavenly guidance in each minute portion of his journey towards Heaven.
Much of the beauty of holiness lies in little things. Microscopic holiness is the perfection of excellence—if a life will bear examination in each hour of it, it is pure, indeed. Those who are not careful about their words and even their thoughts, will soon grow careless concerning their more notable actions. Those who tolerate sin in what they think to be little things, will soon indulge in it in greater maters. To live by the day and to watch each step is the true pilgrimage method. More lies in the careful noting of every single act than careless minds can well imagine. Be this, then, your prayer—“Lord, direct my morning thoughts, that the step out of my chamber into the world may be taken in Your fear. At my table keep me in Your Presence. Behind my counter, or in my field, or wherever else I may be, suffer me not to grieve Your Spirit by any evil.
“And when I come to lie down at night, let the action (which seems so indifferent) of casting myself upon my pillow be performed with a heart that loves You, so that I shall be prepared to be with You, if wakeful during the night.” This brief prayer, “Order my steps,” teaches us attention to the minutiae of life—may we have Divine Grace to learn the lesson. “Order my steps in Your Word.” Notice the expression—not by Your Word, nor according to Your Word. The
sentence means that, but it means far more. The Psalmist evidently looks upon the Word of God as being the very path of his life and he prays that he may walk within the lines which God’s Word has marked out—may always keep within the sacred enclosures which the commands of God have made for the king’s highway.
He does not pray, “order my footsteps by Your Word,” as though it were a law hanging up upon the column in the marketplace, to be read and studied and then left hanging in its place—but in Your Word, as though it were engraved in his heart and then encompassed all his ways, thoughts and being. The word is the road of our marching, the sea of our sailing, the pasture of our feeding, the home of our resting. Lord, never allow us to have a step out of it, nor a disorderly step in it.