Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 17:5

Hold up my goings in thy paths, [that] my footsteps slip not.

5. My steps have held fast to thy tracks,

My feet have not slipped.

The A.V. is grammatically untenable. He describes his conduct positively. Paths, a different word from that in Psa 17:4, denotes the beaten tracks made by wheeled vehicles. Slipped (the same word as moved in Psa 15:5, Psa 16:8), of moral ‘slips’ and ‘falls.’

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Hold up my goings in thy paths – He had been enabled before this to keep himself from the ways of the violent by the word of God Psa 17:4; he felt his dependence on God still to enable him, in the circumstances in which he was placed, and under the provocations to which he was exposed, to live a life of peace, and to keep himself from doing wrong. He, therefore, calls on God, and asks him to sustain him, and to keep him still in the right path. The verb used here is in the infinitive form, but used instead of the imperative. DeWette. – Prof. Alexander renders this less correctly, My steps have laid hold of thy paths; for he supposes that a prayer here would be out of place. But prayer can never be more appropriate than when a man realises that he owes the fact of his having been hitherto enabled to lead an upright life only to the word of God, and when provoked and injured by others he feels that he might be in danger of doing wrong. In such circumstances nothing can he more proper than to call upon God to keep us from sin.

That my footsteps slip not – Margin, as in Hebrew: be not moved. The idea is, that I may be firm; that I may not yield to passion; that, provoked and wronged by others, I may not be allowed to depart from the course of life which I have been hitherto enabled to pursue. No prayer could be more appropriate. When we feel and know that we have been wronged by others; when our lives have given no cause for such treatment as we receive at their hands; when they are still pursuing us, and injuring us in our reputation, our property, or our peace; when all the bad passions of our nature are liable to be aroused, prompting us to seek revenge, and to return evil for evil, then nothing can be more proper than for us to lift our hearts to God, entreating that he will keep us, and save us from falling into sin; that he will enable us to restrain our passions, and to subdue our resentments.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 17:5

Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

Slippery places

The blessing of sanctified affliction is that we are made to see our weakness. David here seems as a little child, ready to fall, stretching out its hand and crying to its Father, Hold up my goings, etc.

I. The believers position is often a very slippery one. Christ told us, in the world ye shall have tribulation, and this is part of it. We are sent into the world to glorify Gods holy law. And this we do by a life of simple faith in Jesus.

II. It is so even in the paths of God. Even in His very paths. Liberty may degenerate into licence; holy caution into legalism; activity into neglect of communion with God, and that into neglect of service. Reliance in Christ to forgetfulness of the Spirit of Christ; and even joy in affliction to an overlooking of our sin, which is the cause of it.

III. The petition. Hold up my goings, etc.

1. It is the very picture of helplessness. I can do nothing, cannot stir a step, without Thee. Oh! to be brought here. The omnipotence of weakness.

2. It is the language of faith. In Psa 17:6 he says, I know that Thou wilt hear me. How simple but how strong this faith.

3. There is also the testimony of an upright conscience.

4. The memory of Gods past dealings with him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

The Christian praying to be upheld

We cannot ascertain at what period of his life David wrote this prayer. It was probably before his lamentable fall If so, we are ready to say he must have forgotten it after he had written it, for otherwise his fall could not have happened. But let us make this prayer our own.

I. True religion is a walking or going on is Gods paths. Think of a country with many tracks in it perhaps, but without any marked roads or paths; a country like one immense down or waste, where in the main men go hither and thither just as they will. Now this is how most men regard the world and their own condition in it. But God appears and marks out certain ways or paths in this world, and bids us inquire for them and keep to them. And this is true religion–obedience to this Divine call. It is a ceasing to live at random, to live as God dictates.

II. The prayer we have to consider. It Implies–

1. A lively apprehension of the evil consequences of falling. An ordinary man does not care, he knows nothing of the malignity of sin. If for a moment sin has disturbed him by reason of some unusual transgression, the effect has been very shallow, very transient. Not so is it with the traveller in Gods ways. He knows how evil and bitter a thing sin is.

2. A consciousness of his proneness to fall. Liability is not a word strong enough. All, even the holiest creatures, are liable to fall–witness Adam and the once holy angels–and even in the holiest places. But in us there is a direct tendency to fall.

3. A belief in the ability and willingness of God to thus hold us up. Thou wilt hear me, O God, so he says in the next verse. There is such a thing as dwelling, if not too frequently, yet too exclusively on our weakness and danger. This is better than ignorance of them, and much better than knowing them, to be careless about them; but it comes far short of the perfection or completeness of true religion. That sees not alone the evil in us, but also the fulness of help for us which there is in God. Let us think much of the helping hand of God.

III. The manner in which we may expect such a prayer as this to be answered.

1. By mercifully removing occasions of falling out of our way.

2. By calling the sustaining graces of His servants into exercise. This a more honourable way for us.

3. By sending such afflictions as are calculated to keep them from falling.

4. By keeping alive a spirit of prayer within us for His upholding. As long as God keeps you prayerful, humbly and earnestly prayerful, be the ground what it may that you go over, you are safe. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The religious course of life sustained

Religion is intercourse maintained between God and us. What condescension on the part of God. They lose much who are strangers to Him. Let us observe David, and learn to pray as he prayed.

I. See his course. My goings. Religion does not allow a man to sit still. All religion is vain unless he is, so to speak, set a-going–unless he says, I will walk in Thy truth. His goings are in Gods paths.

1. Those of His commands.

2. Of His ordinances.

3. Of His dispensations.

II. His concern respecting this course. Hold up my goings, etc. It is the language–

1. Of conviction. He know the injury that would result from a fall or even a slip in religion.

2. Of apprehension, for he knew his footsteps were prone to slide.

3. And of weakness; he knew he could not keep himself.

4. Of confidence, for he was sure that God could and would hold him up. (W. Jay.)

How to walk without slipping

In considering the feelings that breathe in this prayer we note that they express–

I. A vehement desire to walk in Gods ways. There is a sense in which all men desire to walk in Gods ways. For they know the consequences of disobedience, how it provokes His anger and involves punishment. They dislike obedience, but they desire its rewards. Like a hireling, they labour at their task, but only for its promised hire. Could they only be assured that they could get the wages without the work they would gladly leave it alone. But those who have been pardoned through the blood of Jesus, though they have no fear of punishment, yet desire to walk in all the commandments of the Lord, doing what is well-pleasing in His sight.

II. A distressing sense of weakness is discovered and bemoaned in himself. It is when he would do good, i.e. when he desires, and in proportion as he desires, to do good that he is conscious of the evil present with him. If he does not much desire to walk in Gods ways he will not be much distressed at his failures. But if his desire be vehement it is far otherwise with him.

III. The cry. Of one who believes that the Lord is able and willing to hold him up. It is the cry of faith, not alone of desire. And the lesson of the whole is, that would we be upheld, our cry must be of vehement desire, of deep sense of need, and of firm faith. (W. Grant.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths] David walked in God’s ways; but, without Divine assistance, he could not walk steadily, even in them. The words of God’s lips had shown him the steps he was to take, and he implores the strength of God’s grace to enable him to walk in those steps. He had been kept from the paths of the destroyer; but this was not sufficient; he must walk in God’s paths-must spend his life in obedience to the Divine will. Negative holiness can save no man. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

As by thy word and grace thou hast hitherto kept me from the paths of evil men, and led me into thy paths; so, I pray thee, enable me by the same means to persevere in thy ways, and in mine abhorrency of wicked courses, that I may not fall into that sin of revenging myself upon Saul, to which I may be more and more tempted; nor into any other sin, whereby thou mayst be provoked, or men may be offended, and religion disgraced.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. May be read as an assertion”my steps or goings have held on to Thy paths.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Hold up my goings in thy paths,…. Which being spoken by David in his own person, and for himself, shows that he was conscious of his own weakness to keep himself in the ways of God, and to direct his steps therein; and that he was sensible of, the need he stood in of divine power to uphold and support him in them;

[that] my footsteps slip not; out of the paths of truth and duty, of faith and holiness; of which there is danger, should a man be left to himself, and destitute of divine direction and aid; see Ps 73:2; and though Christ had no moral weakness in him, and was in no danger of falling into sin, or slipping out of the ways of God; yet these words may be applied to him in a good sense, as considered in human nature, and attended with the sinless infirmities of it, he being God’s servant, whom he upheld, and of whom he gave his angels charge to keep him in all his ways, Isa 42:1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

5. Uphold my steps. If we take God’s paths for the precepts of his law, the sense will be evident, namely, that although David had spoken according to truth, in boasting of having, in the midst of the most grievous temptations which assailed him, constantly practiced righteousness with a pure heart, yet, conscious of his own weakness, he commits himself to God to be governed by him, and prays for grace to enable him to persevere. His language is as if he had said, Since hitherto, under thy guidance, I have proceeded onward in the right path, I beseech thee, in like manner, to keep my steps from sliding with respect to the time to come. And certainly the more any one excels in grace, (356) the more ought he to be afraid of falling; for it is the usual policy of Satan to endeavor, even from the virtue and strength which God has given us, (357) to produce in us carnal confidence which may induce carelessness. I do not altogether reject this sense, but I think it more probable that David here beseeches God to bring his affairs to a prosperous issue, however dark the aspect of matters was at present. The import of his language is this, Lord, since thou seest that I walk in uprightness and sincerity of heart, govern thou me in such a manner as to make all men see that thou art my protector and guardian, and leave me not to be cast down at the will of my enemies. Thus, by the paths of the Lord, he will mean not the doctrine by which our life is regulated, but the power by which God upholds us, and the protection by which he preserves us. And he addresses God in this manner, not only because all events are in his hand, but because when he takes care of us all things in our lot go on prosperously. When he adds, that the soles of my feet may not slide, he refers to the many adverse events which threaten us every moment, and to the danger we are in of perishing, if not sustained by the hand of God.

(356) “ Et de faict, selon qu’un chacun a receu plus de graces.” — Fr. “And certainly the more grace any one has received.”

(357) “ De la vertu et force que Dieu nous aura donnee.” — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Hold up.Not, as in the Authorised Version, imperative, which is directly opposed to the context. The psalmist still asserts his innocence. Render:

My course kept close in thy tracks,
My footsteps have not wavered.

(Comp. Job. 23:11; Psa. 41:12.)

Paths.Literally, wheel-tracks.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Hold up my goings Rather, My steps hold fast to thy paths. It is a protestation by the psalmist of his fidelity, as in Psa 17:3, and Job 23:11; and this agrees better with the Hiphil preterit of the next verb, My steps have not been moved.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments