AP

Proverbs 4:26-27  Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.  Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.  Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

One of the biggest problems we face today is the influence of distractions.  In almost every area of our lives, the effect of distractions can be potentially quite dangerous.  I shudder to reflect on the number of times the Lord has protected me from having a serious accident on the road because I have been, even for a split second, distracted by something, other than the road ahead, that has caught my attention.

Young people in particular are being constantly bombarded by distractions – often less-than-wholesome advertisements – when they are using their electronic devices.  I am amazed that this even happens to me when I am on the internet consulting a Bible Commentary!

It is important that we remind ourselves that distractions are one of Satan’s powerful weapons to achieve his purposes of diverting us from the path of righteousness and truth.  The last thing our Spiritual Enemy wants us to do is remain steadfastly focussed on God’s Word.  The Psalmist was convinced “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105), and that, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2).

Although Psalm 119 does not have a rubric at the beginning to indicate it was written by King David, there is no reason why he would not be the author, and the traditional rabbinical view ascribes it to him.  Moreover, if King Solomon is the author of Proverbs, which is strongly indicated by all the evidence, then it is interesting that Chapter 4, from which today’s verses are taken, begins: “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.”  Perhaps David was very much aware of Solomon’s propensity to distractions – he slept with 700+300=1,000 0f them (1 Kings 11:3)!

Let us also heed Jesus’ warning in the ’Sermon on the Mount’: “Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).  Lord, may your Holy Spirit help me daily to cause my eyes to ‘look straight ahead’ so as not to ‘turn to the right or the left;’ so as to ‘keep [my] foot from evil”, by ‘meditating on your law, day and night’.

 – Bruce Christian