In the Land of the Living

Psalm 116:9

“I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”

There are verses in Scripture that meet us in a particular season and seem to say exactly what we need to hear. Psalm 116 has been one of those passages for me. It is a psalm born out of difficulty. The psalmist speaks of distress, anguish, death, and trouble. He has cried out to the Lord, and he has experienced the Lord's deliverance. He knows what it is to desperately need God, and he knows what it is to see God answer.

And then comes verse 9: “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”

I am drawn to that word, walk. It is active and involves effort. It means continuing to move forward. To walk before the Lord is to live with an awareness of Him. It is intentionally remembering what He has already done, trusting that He is still at work, and believing that He will remain faithful even when we cannot see what He is doing.

I have experienced seasons when I desperately wanted God to change something, and He did. I have also experienced seasons when the thing I wanted changed remained, and I had to learn what it meant to trust Him there. Both experiences have taught me something about what it means to walk before the Lord.

It is surrender, but it is not passive. It is an active posture of awareness and attentiveness. It is looking for Him in the ordinary moments of life and recognizing that even the simplest things can become joyful when we receive them as gifts from Him.

In those times when I am having a flare or the vertigo is so bad that I cannot do anything but sit, walking before the Lord can look very different. It can mean actively surrendering what I cannot change, remembering all He has done before, and then looking for ways I can still be thankful, seek Him, and glorify Him right where I am.

During a particularly debilitating time, I spent my days in a recliner in my living room. My vestibular nerve damage caused the world to be topsy-turvy, making it impossible to do anything else. That is when the Lord gave me painting. I remember trying to draw with my kids years earlier, and it was mostly stick figures and poorly drawn trees. Yet, during that time of inability, I started painting in watercolor. It was something I could actually do. It became a form of worship for me. I have always loved to sit in creation and notice what is around me. It is a way I see evidence of a God who creates with intention. I see how each thing works together, how every part has a purpose, and how even the smallest details have been carefully designed. And when I began painting and I put trees, birds, and flowers on paper, I was continually reminded that the same God who created all of that with such purpose is the God who created me. He is the God who engineered my body, who spoke through people about what was to come, who sent Jesus to fulfill those prophecies, and who raised Him from the dead three days later.

That same God is at work today.

He still speaks into our lives. He still provides. He still opens opportunities for us to glorify Him, to testify to His goodness, and to tell others about Jesus. The God who created the smallest details of creation is not distant from the details of our lives. When I walk before Him, I want to notice those things. I want to recognize His fingerprints in the ordinary, to receive His provision with gratitude, and to remain attentive to the opportunities He places in front of me. He is still at work, even in circumstances I would not have chosen.

I think that is part of what the psalmist understood. His declaration to walk before the Lord did not come from a life where everything had worked out exactly as he wanted. It came after distress, anguish, and trouble. He had experienced God's deliverance, but he also understood that following God meant continuing to live faithfully whether the next season brought another deliverance or another difficulty.

Sometimes God changes what is happening around us. Sometimes He changes us in the middle of what is happening. Sometimes He gives us the strength to keep going when we would rather be somewhere else entirely. In all of those circumstances, He is still God, He is still present, and He is still worthy of our trust.

And that brings me to the second part of this verse: “in the land of the living.”

The psalmist is talking about this life, the life he is living right now. The life that still has uncertainty and difficulty and unanswered questions. He is choosing to live here, before the Lord, knowing that this life is not all there is.

I think sometimes I am tempted to live as though I will really begin living once something changes. Once the circumstances improve. Once the uncertainty is resolved. Once the difficult season is over. Once I understand what God is doing.

But Psalm 116:9 challenges that way of thinking.

The psalmist says, “I will walk.”

Here.

In this life.

In the circumstances I actually have.

That might mean moving forward with confidence because I can clearly see the next step. It might mean taking the next step when I have no idea what comes after it. Sometimes it means celebrating an answer to prayer. Other times it means continuing to trust God when the answer is no, or when the answer seems to be not yet.

Walking before the Lord means I don't have to know everything ahead of me to take the step that is in front of me. It means I can pay attention to what God is doing in my life and the lives of those around me instead of constantly waiting for Him to do something different. I can remember His faithfulness. I can recognize His presence. I can be grateful for what is good without pretending that what is difficult isn't hard. I can grieve what I have lost and still receive what God has given me today.

The ordinary parts of our lives are not outside of God's presence. Our work is not outside of His presence. Our families are not outside of His presence. Our relationships, our disappointments, our decisions, our celebrations, our grief, and even the things we do not understand are all happening before Him.

The psalmist had learned something through his suffering and deliverance. His confidence was no longer dependent upon everything around him being secure. His confidence was in the Lord. And because he knew the Lord, he could look at the life still in front of him and say, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”

My prayer for today is one of thankfulness that is difficult to put into words. He has provided, sustained, and answered prayer after prayer. And during those times of doubt or despair, I pray for His help to remember what He has already done and to let that give me confidence for what I cannot yet see. I pray that He would help me recognize His presence even when His purposes are unclear to me, grieve what is hard without losing sight of what is good, and receive the ordinary moments of this life as gifts rather than overlooking them because I am waiting for something better.

Because of all God has done, I know something better is coming. But until then, I will walk. Not because I have figured everything out, but because I have experienced the goodness of the Lord and I can trust Him with what I cannot see.

Jesus died for us and made a way for a fallen, sin-filled world to be redeemed. Because of Him, we have been given new life, and we can now live that life before the Lord.

“I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”