What does it mean to commit your way to the Lord (Psalm 37:5)?

A third instruction is in verse 5. "Commit thy way to the Lord," or, as the margin has it, "Roll thy way upon the Lord." How often are we in such perplexing and trying circumstances that our way seems hedged up and impossible: sometimes we may be misjudged, oppressed and even persecuted. What can we do? We can roll the responsibility of our way upon the Lord, and rely on Him. There is immense relief in this. The load is taken off our feeble shoulders, and placed upon His shoulders of strength.

This committing of our way to the Lord supposes of course that we are in the midst of tribulation and testing from the adversaries. Let us remember that it is not the first item of instruction, nor the second, but the third. It takes for granted that we are trusting in the Lord, and finding our delight in Him. Then, and only then, shall we be prepared to roll our way upon Him, and know that as a happy consequence, "He will bring it to pass."

Bring what to pass? we may ask. Bring to pass His own designs of blessing in connection with our trials, and in particular bring to pass that of which verse 6 speaks. It is His holy pleasure to bring forth a full vindication of His saints, when His disciplinary work within us has reached full fruition. Oppression and defamation are very hard to bear, and doubly so when they proceed from those who are friends. When Job was defamed by his friends he felt it most keenly, but for a long time he fought for his own character instead of committing his way to the Lord. When at last he did this, it did not take long for God to bring forth, His righteousness as the light and His judgment as the noonday. Directly he condemned himself and justified God, his righteousness became clear and God Himself bore witness that at last he had spoken the thing that was right. Then as a consequence his judgment was as the noonday, for he was vindicated before men and blessed of God.

True godliness, or piety, puts the soul into the presence of God. It promotes God-consciousness, and so we see the hand of God at work in the circumstances of life, where the man of the world only sees confusion, or perhaps "luck." The instruction, "Roll thy way upon the Lord." is a hard saying where piety is at a low ebb. Where it is a full-flowing tide it is easy and a delightful relief.

Added to this is the exhortation, "Commit your ways to the Lord, trust also in Him, and he shall bring it to pass" (v. 5). In practical experience we need this daily, for each day has its special needs, and only the Lord can be depended on to rightly guide us, so that we do not make false steps. When we once commit our way to him, He expects us then to have confidence fully in His leading, not being fearful, but trusting Him for every step, with confident assurance of faith. When this is so, "He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday" (v. 6). How good indeed are the eventual results of the faith that consistently confides in the faithfulness of the Son of God.

Instead of being stumbled and turned out of the right way by reason of the prosperity of the wicked, let the godly commit his way to the Lord. However rough it may be at the moment, the Lord will maintain the godly in the way, and make manifest the righteousness of the one who keeps in the way.

76 Next, delight thyself in Jehovah: He will give the desires of the heart. Holy desires, which have Himself for their object, will be satisfied. But opposition, shame, perhaps calumny, is there. "Commit thy way to Jehovah." How true is this! He has always, as men speak, the last word if we have only faith to wait for it. He will bring the result the righteous heart desires and make evident its righteousness.

And the way to cast all our care upon Him, so that we are anxious for nothing, is told us in this lovely verse in Philippians: "In every thing, by your prayer and by your supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God". Sometimes the load of care seems too heavy to cast it anywhere. Then the Lord invites us to "roll thy way upon the Lord" (Ps. 37:5: Margin). When we were children in Canada, in the winter, we would make great snowballs; and when they got too heavy to lift, we still could roll them. So roll that great load of care on Him, "because it is a matter of care to Him, concerning you," as the Greek so sweetly puts it. And in the Greek Testament two different words are used here for care. The one is "anxious, harassing care:" the other is God's loving "providential care" over us.*

Let the way too be committed to Him, and difficulties will disappear before Jehovah's sufficiency. Not only will one's purposes thus be realized, but thy righteousness too will be made plain as the light, and thy right as the noon-day.

In Psalm 37 there are four conditions of soul in connection with this, and each is dependent on the other, or each is fitness for the next. "Trust in the Lord;" "Delight thyself in the Lord;" "Commit thy way unto the Lord;" "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;" i.e. wait till He acts for you.

This Psalm is also alphabetical in structure and somewhat proverbial in character. It is full of sweet comfort and encouragement to faith. All the saints of God have fed on its beautiful statements, and the coming saints of Israel will find help and strength in it for their souls. He who trusts in the Lord and waits for Him needs not to fret on account of evil-doers; they will soon be cut off. But what is the righteous man to do? Trust in the Lord--delight thyself in Him--commit thy way unto the Lord--rest in the Lord. If God's people will but do this all is well, for He who never faileth adds His promises. He promises safety, the fulfilment of the heart's desire; He will bring it to pass and bring forth righteousness as the light. Waiting for the Lord will end for the godly of that coming day, when the evil-doers will be cut off in judgment and when those who waited on the Lord shall inherit the earth. This is Israel 's promise which will be realized for the godly remnant when the Lord appears in glory in their midst. These brief hints will help in the study of the entire Psalm. It must be looked upon as prophetic, pointing to the day when the wicked troubles no more, when his end is come and when the Lord exalts the righteous to inherit the land.

(vv. 3-11) Faith in the Lord is the way of escape from this snare. Thus the word to the godly soul is, “Trust in the Lord”; “delight thyself also in the Lord”; “Commit thy way to the Lord”; “Rest in the Lord”; and “wait upon the Lord.”

Psalm 37 is very distinctly in connection with the display of the direct government of God in this world, as it will be made good when the meek shall inherit the land and the wicked be cut off. We have already seen that the epistles of Peter especially furnish to us the application of this to the Christian estate as far as it is so applicable. The beginning of Matthew 5 gives us also, only with a much fuller evangelical character, though not going farther than the kingdom of heaven, the application in the way of promise, as far as the temper pleasing to God goes. But there are some most interesting and instructive exhortations in the psalm as to the spirit in which the believer is to walk and the character of his confidence in God in the midst of the evil which surrounds him. For though the time of the direct display of God's government be not come, and no doubt the power of evil will be displayed more oppressively just before it is put down, still it is even now the time of patience, and the evil is there. Till Christ comes, it is in principle the evil day, and the patience and kingdom of Jesus Christ go together in the heart - not His own kingdom and glory. They are all founded on the certainty that after all Jehovah is above all the evil, loves judgment, does not forget the righteous and those who trust in Him, and that, in the end, His way would have the upper hand. Meanwhile faith is exercised and all that is in the heart judged, which would by self-will mar the spiritual character and hinder the confidence in the Lord which becomes the saint.