God Is With UsSýnishorn

Our Path, His Presence

Your hand will guide me. -Psalm 139:10

The Appalachian Trail has tested wilderness hikers since its completion in 1937. But the trail itself has been tested too.

Since its opening, the Georgia-to-Maine path in the US has been shifted, shrunk, stretched, and redesigned to its present 2,200 miles.

Said wilderness hiker Bill Bryson about traveling the trail, “What is certain is that it’s a long way and from either end it’s not easy.”

Life’s path can often feel just as difficult—an uncertain, shifting road that we travel down (Psalm 139:3). What joy to know that God is with us every step of the way.

As David wrote, “You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head” (v. 5). He marveled at God’s attentiveness. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!” (v. 6). God’s ever-present Spirit comforted David in his most troubling moments. “If I dwell by the farthest oceans,” he wrote, “even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (vv. 9-10).

There was nowhere the psalmist could walk that he wouldn’t experience God’s presence.

Christ’s incarnation means that we can enjoy His presence in every trial or situation.

Before He left His disciples, He told them, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you” (John 14:16). Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection changed everything.

We never walk alone.

Patricia Raybon

Where does life’s path feel confusing? How will you seek God’s guiding presence?

Please guide me today, dear God, as I walk life’s path.