The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
    I will advise you and watch over you.
9 Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

10 Many sorrows come to the wicked,
    but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord.
11 So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him!
    Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure! NLT

We pulled into a car park a day or two ago, and there was a huge lorry in front of us, bearing this message in big lettering: ‘A guiding light when the road ahead is dark’. Below it there was a link to the headlight project, which, I later discovered has been set up with the aim of reducing the number of deaths by suicide in the Tees Valley.

But it was that ‘guiding light’ in the ‘dark’ that captured my attention when I first saw it.

I am grateful for every clear promise in Scripture concerning God’s guidance. Here in Psalm 32:8 is one of them. Jilly and I have just finished reading Isobel Kuhn’s inspirational book, ‘In the arena’. I was struck by these words in her penultimate chapter:

‘I believe it was D.E.Hoste who said that the older he grew the harder it seemed to get guidance from the Lord. I believe he meant that guidance becomes less simple. God expects us to exercise spiritual discernment, and He guides by a certain pressure on the spirit, by a still small voice, by a something so delicately intangible that unless you are carefully tuned in to His Spirit, so to speak, you can miss it widely.’

But God’s promises are true, and His guidance is real, as multitudes of believers can testify.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
    which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
    or they will not come to you.
10 Many are the woes of the wicked,
    but the Lord’s unfailing love
    surrounds the one who trusts in him.

11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
    sing, all you who are upright in heart! NIVUK

‘The Lord’s teaching is not an impersonal dictat but the loving word of a caring God. Just so, our response should not be the forced compliance of an uncomprehending beast but a correspondingly loving obedience.’ Alec Motyer

Warren Wiersbe says of David in Psalm 32:

‘David was like a stubborn animal that needed to be broken. When you are out of the will of God, your decisions will often create problems instead of solve them. The way gets harder.

David went from silence (v.3) to singing (v.7) because he finally was honest with God and confessed his sins (vv.5-6).’

PRAYER: ‘Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee O Lord…’