Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Psalm 143:10
Prayed From the Floor
You have to know where David is when he prays this. A few lines earlier he says, "The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead." Then, "So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed." By verse 7 he's begging God to hurry. "Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails."
This is not a man doing his devotions on a good morning. He's on the floor.
And from there he asks for two things. Teach me to do your will. And lead me on level ground.
That second phrase is easy to read past. In Hebrew it's the language of level country, flat land, a stretch of ground you can cross without stumbling. It's a picture of stability, not information. David already knows plenty about what God wants. Two verses earlier he's asked God to "show me the way I should go." What he's asking for in verse 10 is different. He isn't short on directions. He's short on footing.
Then there's the reason he gives, and it's not what you'd expect from a man in his position. Not "because I've been faithful." Not "because I deserve a break." He says, "for you are my God." That's his argument. The claim he makes on God is belonging, nothing else.
A.J. Swoboda has a line worth contemplating alongside this. We aren't lucky, he says. We are loved. God made us because he desired us. David isn't rolling dice and hoping. He's appealing to a God who wanted him in the first place.
Ask for Footing
Most of us pray the first half of this verse and skip the second. We ask God what to do. We ask for the decision, the answer, the sign. And often the problem isn't that we don't know what he wants. It's that we can't seem to stand up long enough to do it.
So ask him for the footing. Ask for level ground.
Some days that's praying for steadiness through the week you already know is coming, instead of praying for the week to be different. Some days it's asking God for the strength to make the same right choice again, the one you've already made and unmade several times. Some days it's telling him plainly that you're too tired for what he's asked you to do, and asking him to hold you up while you do it anyway. And some days it's telling one person how bad it is, instead of managing your answer to how are you.
Notice who does the leading. "May your good Spirit lead me on level ground." The Old Testament almost never calls God's Spirit good, and here he does. The same Spirit is still doing this. In the Vineyard we talk about partnering with the Holy Spirit, and this is what it looks like from underneath. You don't generate the steadiness. You ask him for it, and then you take the step.
Here's what this psalm doesn't do. It never says the enemy stops chasing him. God doesn't clear the field. He steadies the ground under a man who's still being hunted, and that's the promise on offer. Not the absence of trouble. Footing in the middle of it. One day he'll deal with the pursuit for good. Today he'll hold you up.
Prayer
Father, we've been asking you what to do when what we needed was the strength to do it. Thank you for hearing the prayers we pray from the floor.
Teach us to do your will. And send your good Spirit to put level ground under us, the kind we can cross without falling. We're not asking because we've earned it. We're asking because you're our God, and you wanted us before we ever came looking for you. Steady us today, right in the middle of what hasn't changed yet. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.