Delighting in the Paths of Righteousness

A story of centuries ago tells of two children whose daily walk to school is bordered on one side by a gigantic hedge of thorns. Immediately above the hedge rises the generous branches of a prolific apple tree, amidst the glorious expanse of the western sky.

Desiring the forbidden fruit and deploring the hindering thorns, the wayward brother daily expresses his dissatisfaction with the path before him, eventually resolving to break through the hedge into freedom. His credulous little sister listens in wonder.

And so he begins his struggle to cut through. His arms scratch and bleed, yet he remains undeterred.

“Now, sister, try to get through the Hedge first, for you are the least, and I will follow.”

The sister crawls a short space before she cries out fearfully against the darkness and thorns. In a fit of passion and disgust at her timidity, he thrusts her further, but her cries grow louder, “My brother, my brother! The thorns, the thorns!” Hastily dragging her out, he finds to his horror a face pierced and bleeding!

Poor, ignorant children! The very object of their discontentment, the restrictive hedge, has barely rescued the little girl from a violent death, for it sits next to a deep ravine where it was planted decades earlier to prevent young children from falling.

Oh, blessed thorns that keep the wayward soul from sin and destruction! Blessed thorns that keep us on the path of righteousness!

God in His providence has provided “hedges” to deter His followers from straying from the path of eternal life. These restrictions are not to harm us, stifle us, or enslave us, but actually to check our tendency to choose the destructive path of sin.

Those who rebel against the hedge and struggle against the thorns will be pierced with pain, sorrow, and eventually death; but the thorns are seldom felt by those who patiently walk in the paths appointed them, without attempting to break from them, either to the right or to the left.

“Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them” (Proverbs 22:5).

The very things we chafe under, that seem to stifle our freedom, are sometimes actually a means God is using to restrain us from sin and make clear to us the direction He wants us to follow. These “hedges” can be so many things: the strictness of parents, the expectations of elders, sickness, handicap, poverty, death of family or friends, unreasonable in-laws, a wayward child, ailing parents, etc.

When I struggle with discontentment, I like to picture myself as one of these children. The way was so plain before their eyes, so uncomplicated, so protected. Why must they draw aside to injure themselves with the thorns? Why must I grab after what is beyond my reach – Ouch! Let me thrust the thorns out of my way – Ouch! I will fight more fiercely; I will conquer them – Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Oh, God forbid! May I have the faith to say yes to Him, in total surrender, and so never feel the wounding thorns! Let this ever be the thought of my heart:

“I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law in within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

Delight. What thrill this word stirs in me! Does aught other word express a joy so rich and lasting, so satisfactory?

Webster defines:

DELIGHT: “To affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy; as, a beautiful landscape delights the eye; harmony delights the ear; the good conduct of children, and especially their piety, delights their parents. ‘I will delight myself in thy statutes.’ Psalm 119.”

Yes, I delight in His will! I will rejoice in the way He has chosen for me. I am journeying on the narrow path to everlasting glory. “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).