The question is asked in Psalm 119:9: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” and the answer given is, “By taking heed thereto, according to Thy Word.”
On the day of our conversion, we were made “clean every whit;” cleansed from all our sins, and set on the way to glory. This washing never needs to be repeated: it is “once for all.” But between the day of conversion, and the day of the believer’s entrance to heaven, there is the pilgrim pathway; the daily walk through a world filled with defilement and corruption. In order that his “way” may be “cleansed,”
God has given him His Word. The “plain path” in which the Father desires His children to walk is there marked out, and warning given concerning the snares and pitfalls that lie alongside that path. By “taking heed” to his way according to that Word, the child of God is preserved from the surrounding defilement that he would otherwise easily come in contact with, and have his communion with God disturbed and broken.
But, be it remembered, it is only as the Word is obeyed, that this is secured. It is not enough to know the Lord’s way; it must be trodden. He not only requires to see the tempter’s snare, but to avoid it—to flee from it. Some seem to try how near they can walk to temptation without falling into it, but the believer who “takes heed” to his way, by the warnings of the “Word,” will give it as wide a berth as he possibly can. He will “abstain from all appearance of evil.” (1 Thess. 5:22).
This, dear young saints, is the safe and happy path. If you want to have the sunshine of the Lord shining upon you, as you journey along to your home above, then let every step of your way be ordered and controlled according to God’s Word. Follow wherever it leads you. Keep clear of all that it warns you of. Thus, O Lord, shall our way be cleansed, by “taking heed thereto, according to Thy Word.”