I considered my ways
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
— Psalm 119:59
Here the psalmist describes something that perhaps all of us need to pause and do — he took time to consider his ways.
The Lost Art of Consideration
To consider is a deliberate mental exercise. It is the act of stopping — stepping back from the busyness of life, from the endless pursuit of happiness, wealth, success, and comfort — in order to engage the mind honestly with reality. It means asking ourselves serious questions: where are we? Where do we want to be? Where are we actually going? And are the things we are doing day by day taking us there?
Because life is so relentlessly busy, we rarely find time to think through what truly matters. And so instead of addressing the real issues in our lives, we keep pursuing and doing and achieving and accumulating — but never arriving at any meaningful conclusion. Our lives pile up with unexamined questions and unresolved tensions. Paul’s words to Timothy come to mind — that some people are always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. This is what happens when we are too busy to stop and consider.
When the psalmist refers to his ways, he is pointing to the whole fabric of his life — how he conducts himself, how he speaks, how he thinks, how he approaches relationships, how he sees the world. His deeds, his words, his attitudes, and everything in between. These are our ways.
What Consideration Produces
The psalmist says he deliberately took time to consider all of this. He paused from the business of life, sat down, and took a long and honest look at himself. And the result of that honest consideration was that he turned his feet toward the testimonies of God.
The testimonies of God represent the full counsel of God’s Word — what God declares to be true and false, right and wrong. To turn toward them is to reorient one’s entire life around God’s standards — to see the world the way God sees it, and to live on God’s terms rather than our own.
This is what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5 — that he no longer considers anything according to merely human standards, but through an entirely renewed way of seeing.
There comes a point when all of us need to take this kind of honest look at our ways. And when we do — when we look with clear eyes at where our own paths lead — we will inevitably find that the only way to live a life that makes sense, a life that is truly fruitful, is a life lived on God’s terms.
This is not a popular idea. We prefer to do things our way. But history and experience consistently bear out the same conclusion — doing things our own way leads back to fear, anxiety, emptiness, and a fruitlessness that we cannot explain away. Solomon put it plainly in Ecclesiastes:
I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness. Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
— Ecclesiastes 7:15-17
A Moment to Pause
At some point today — perhaps even now — may we hit the pause button on our busy lives and take time to honestly consider our ways. And may the result of that consideration be what it was for the psalmist: that we turn our feet toward God and His Word, knowing that it is only in Him that we find true satisfaction and fulfilment.
I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments.
— Psalm 119:60
Amen.
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