God Establishes Our Steps

September 3rd, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Psalm 37:23-26 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. 24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong… the Lord is the One who holds his hand. 25 I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. 26 All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.

In v. 23 the sovereignty of God is unmistakable, for “the steps of man are established by the Lord.” Now to “establish” (Heb. kun) is to “set up; to form”—to direct (NLT) or order (KJV). So is God guiding man’s every step or just the righteous? The latter seems to fit the context better, but even so, does this mean that God’s righteous ones (i.e., Christians) are robots in that God orders their every step so as to “delight” in their behavior? The NET Bible translates this as, “The Lord grants success to the one whose behavior He finds commendable.” Though not at all a literal translation of the Hebrew text, this does seem to capture what the Psalmist is saying. We might add that God not only “establishes” the “steps” of the righteous, He also provides the stops for the righteous, putting up various roadblocks to keep their “steps” in line with His will.

The truth is, God does pave the path for mankind to live—both the righteous and the unrighteous. He guides our way through our reading of Scripture. God has given His word, like a map to a treasure, in order to guide us down the path of righteousness—a path whereby He can “delight” in us. Paul writes, “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). So when we do walk the paths that God has “established,” He delights in our way. Conversely, when we fail to obey Him, we cheat ourselves of His blessings. In v. 24, the Psalmist pictures God’s people walking the path of righteousness, and “when he falls, he will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” The point is that although the righteous still sin, they will never be turned over to their sin, for God keeps them, guaranteeing their salvation.

In v. 25, the Psalmist speaks of being older, more wise than he once was when he was young. In his experience, he claims to have never seen a righteous man, or his children, beg for bread. So, does this mean that no Christian has ever or will ever have a physical need? Many pastors have struggled with this given that many have witnessed true Christians suffer greatly, both they and their children—even begging for sustenance. Is the Psalmist, and therefore Scripture, wrong in this assessment? Not at all. What the passage does not teach is that the righteous will never be faced with difficulties. Even the Psalm itself teaches that the righteous endure famines (v. 19) and the like. Perhaps the Psalmist was observing that when Israel was functioning according to God’s Law, people in need could always go to the temple and be fed; they could “eat and rejoice” (Ps. 22:26). How? The Law of Moses made provision for the righteous to allow the poor to glean in their fields (Lev. 19:9-10; cf. Ruth 2). So if Israel was obedient, the righteous would never go begging, for God made provisions for their needs.

In v. 26, the Psalmist backs up his statement from v. 25, saying, “All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.” Again, one wonders how true this really is at first glance! David, in his old age, seems to be saying that the righteous (Christians in the modern context) never cease to give to those in need, and their “children are a blessing” (NLT). But that certainly is not true for all Christians and their children. In fact, it is oftentimes the exact opposite! More realistically, since the righteous do not charge interest to those in need (Ps. 15:5), they seek no gain in helping them (cf. Exod. 22:25; Ps. 112:5, 9)—only obedience to God in helping a fellow man. As to the reference to children, perhaps is that God’s blessing extends to the next generation, namely that the righteous will be blessed and will aid others likewise.

Food For Thought
In Scripture, the Bible we possess, we learn all about God. Moreover, we can spend our entire lives doing so and never stop learning about the greatness of our God. His greatness is beyond us, so as we grow in our wisdom year-by-year, we need to constantly tap into Scripture for more and more understanding of who God is. We can know so much more about Him after we’ve read the Bible a time or two in our 30’s than we could know about Him in our teens. What we see is that God has “established” our path in Scripture, revealing not only our destiny but His own greatness. If we will remain in Him, we will lack for nothing—in this life and beyond. Furthermore, we leave a well-worn path for our children to follow—a life of obedience to Christ and blessings from Him. That is the greatest gift we can leave for our children. The greatest!