Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. (Psalm 36:11)
In Luke’s Gospel it is recorded that, as the time drew near for Messiah to be offered up, “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). It also tells us that He sent messengers into a Samaritan village to find a place where they might stay briefly. However, the village rejected Him because “His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53). Feeling incensed at the disrespect shown to their rabbi, some of the disciples wanted to call fire down upon them to destroy them. To this Yeshua said. “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:56). And so, rather than taking time out of His schedule to destroy them, as some would have preferred, He simply led them to another village.
The point is this: Messiah’s face was set and His heart was committed to the path that the Father had called Him to walk and nothing — not arrogance, ignorance or wickedness — was going to deter Him from His mission. This is what comes to mind when I read David’s prayer, “Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.” In essence, he asked God to keep the arrogant and wicked at bay so they would not have the opportunity to keep him from walking the path God had chosen for him. In a sense, like Messiah, David’s face was set to pursue God’s purpose and was not inclined to let others distract him in any way, regardless of who they were or what they were doing.
I’m of the opinion that God’s people are, at times, easily sidetracked from what is really important. We are too quick to allow others and their drama, or things we are greatly offended by, steal our focus away from what we should set our face toward. Case in point: we get so engrossed with the latest heavenly signs or the latest political and societal developments we think might have prophetic significance that we lose sight of what we are actually supposed to be doing. To be fair, there are definite signs God gives us to help us track where we are in the scheme of things, but those signs should not cause us to stall out on what our mission actually is. Yeshua’s disciples wanted the offending partiies to be destroyed; Messiah wanted them to be saved which is why He stayed true to His mission.
As His followers, we are called to be witnesses of the resurrected Messiah and to lead others to the life that He provides. We are not called to be the harbingers of death and destruction we so commonly become when we allow the actions of the proud and the wicked to become our primary focus. Remember: the Son of Man came to save, not to destroy. So as we pray that God will keep wicked influences from our path, let us also be careful not to allow the pride of our own heart to sneak in and lead us from the path He has called us to. As it is written, “The Lord God will help me … therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed” (Isaiah 50:7).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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