There are two kinds of people: those who divide people into two groups and those who do not. The Psalmist did! He saw humanity divided between those who are right with God and those who are in the wrong. In these verses he explains that our trajectory will ultimately determine our destiny. Will we be for God or against him?
Since God is for us, who can be against us? It is so much easier to run with the wind at our backs than to face the wind. When we live our lives in consonance with God’s will we find that his power his pushing us forward faster than we could go on our own. Paul wrote, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). God is watching over and attending to those who choose to walk with him. He hears our prayers.
The same wind which drives us forward will surely stop us in our tracks when we choose to defy God. When we do evil, God’s face is against us. Those who choose to go fifteen rounds with the Almighty will lose. If we go against God, no one can help us. Think about the people who defied God and were quickly defeated.
John Oxenham captured it:
To every man there openeth a way, and ways, and a way,
And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low.
And in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth a high way and a low;
And every man decideth the way his soul shall go. “
