Straying From the Ways of Salvation

We have in this first verse [Ps.119:1] two notable lessons; the one is that God here accuses us that every[one] of us strays and errs from the way of salvation, and although we protest that we are willing and desirous to be saved, yet for all that our wicked affections do in such sort carry us away, as that we desire nothing else but that we be far from that felicity and blessedness which is set before us.  For it is said, “Blessed are those who walk in the right way.”  So much for the first point.

The second is, that we may invent and devise many and sundry kinds of life, and so think that we go the best and surest way that may be, and by this means deceive ourselves; for there is but one way that leads to salvation.  What way is it?  It is not that which we of our own brain do imagine.  For when Isaiah says that everyone has declined from his way, he means that we all run into everlasting destruction.  The Law of God then is the way that must rule and order our life, and when we will listen to it, all things shall go well with us; but whoever swerves from it, he is like a savage and wild beast which can do nothing else but gallop and fling over the fields.

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In this passage, Calvin highlights the importance of walking according to God’s law in all things.  To depart from this is to head straight for destruction. 

Pray today for the many both outside and inside the church who imagine they are right with God, but yet have invented their own DIY way of salvation; this can only lead to eternal death.  Only by walking according to God’s plan for us may we know His blessing; otherwise, we will find Him to be our enemy. And we don’t want that, do we?