How Can My Way Be Cleansed?

Psalm 119:9 KJV

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

The answer to the question, “How can my way be cleansed?”, is provided in the verse above. Let’s take it one by one. The first part is to take heed and to take heed means to pay careful attention. Having in our view, the subject: our way. The Lord is telling us through this verse to pay careful attention to our way, our way of life, our way of doing things. In the second part, He tells us how: according to His Word. The phrase “According to” means in a manner conforming with. When we use the meaning of the phrase for the second part, then we get the following statement: in a manner conforming with His Word. To combine the two parts, we have: pay attention to your way, set your course in a manner conforming with His Word.

The amazing thing is that the Bible gave us details in verses 1-8.

Psalm 119:1-8 KJV

1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

It is very easy to mix things up. David is very consistent. He mentions the fruit, then the reason that fruit comes about. Let’s look at verse 1. I will not be surprised if someone says that they have to be undefiled first, before they can walk in the law of the Lord. Actually, those who walk in the Law of the Lord are the undefiled. This reminds me of sin and bad deeds; righteousness and good deeds. People think, because I do bad things, I am a sinner. That is not true. Because men are sinners, they sin. It is not the other way round. That is why, we who are born again are not subject to sin. Sin and righteousness are identities. Doing good things does not make you righteous. Because one is righteous in Christ, they do good things. Bad deeds and good deeds are products of sin or righteousness.

Back to our topic. So, how do we do?

• When we walk in the word of Lord, our way is purified.

• When we seek the Lord with your whole heart, we are blessed because we receive grace to keep His testimonies.

• When we walk in His ways, we will not do iniquity.

David slips in a prayer: “Thou hast commanded us to keep they precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!“ Let’s continue to gleen the verses:

• When we have respect unto God’s word, we will not be ashamed.

• When we learn about his righteous judgements, we will find ourselves praising the Lord.

• Because the Lord does not forsake us, we are able to keep His word.

The focus is not us, but His word. The word of God. It is wonderful to learn that Jesus is the Word. He tells us in John 14:6: “I am the way“. If we want to want know take heed to ourselves according to God’s word, we ought to know the Word for ourselves. We really need to create time to study the word of God. It is important since the course of our lives depend on it. The details from verses 1-8 shows us how the Lord helps us to walk in His way. Oh! How He Loves us.

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Now, what I showed you are the details from the old testament. The new testament shows us the truth in Christ and the old testament explains to us the details of that truth. As a child of God, how do we cleanse our way?

John 15:3 KJV

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Notice how Jesus doesn’t tells us how to cleanse our way. He instead, cleanses us. He communicates this truth to us again in

Ephesians 5:26 KJV

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.

The “it” in the context, is the church. Paul later writes in verse 32 of the same chapter: … I speak concerning Christ and the church. Without a shadow of doubt, Jesus cleanses us by the word. He makes us pure, then He does something wonderful. We read it earlier: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Jesus is our way. If you are in doubt, He says He is the truth. What is the scope? Life.

What does it mean for Jesus to be our way?

Well, what is a way? Dictionary.com tells us something:

1. manner, mode, or fashion.

2. characteristic or habitual manner.

Even in our experiences, we can define a way to be a direction or a path.

Since Jesus is my way, He is my characteristic. For example, I have to speak to a crowd. How do I go about it? I look at how Jesus went about speaking to a crowd and I meditate on it. I meditate and meditate until I see how to apply the word in my specific case. That is what the Lord Himself told Joshua.

Joshua 1:8 KJV

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Read → Meditate → Observe/See → Do. That is the way. Not only would we would have our way cleansed, our way is the word of God Himself. What a privilege. In fact, we ourselves are cleansed. Praise God.