Walking

in a wide place

Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:45

I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.

To most people, the idea of living according to God’s word is viewed as a life of constraint. It is slavery to the law. The Psalmist shows us the opposite is true. Some translations have this as, “I shall walk with liberty.” That is a good way to put it.

The word is said to mean “a wide-open, free space.” Keil and Delitzsch explain it this way:

What he would willingly do by the grace of God, and strives to do, is to walk…in a broad space… therefore unstraitened, which in this instance is not equivalent to happily, but courageously and unconstrainedly, without allowing myself to be intimidated, and said of inward freedom which makes itself known outwardly.

In the New Testament, the Apostle John puts it this way, “His commandments are not burdensome…” This is the same idea, and it flies in the face of how the common man views Christianity and a life of obedience to the Word of God.

Christ said he came to set us free, but that freedom isn’t found in caving in to our depraved lusts and desires. That only produces spiritual slavery. True freedom is found in being yoked with Christ. That is where we find rest and true freedom.