It is a beautiful, profound, and meaningful biblical expression: walking in God’s presence, walking your life’s path in a relaxed and trusting way. It evokes visions of relaxation and tranquillity. Walking is good for you, and so it is not surprising that today there are calls for more walking, in the woods or along ancient pilgrimage routes. A way to escape the hustle and bustle and the pressure to accomplish.

A few previews from the article:

If the Lord knows us more deeply than we know ourselves, what does that reveal about us to him?!

Life before God’s face is played out in the deepest, most hidden ways.

We see in the commandment the path the Lord shows us, but we do not foresee its outcome.

It would be good if, at least in church, we realized that we must do what is wise and good.

But how does this “walking in God’s presence” (or before God’s face) relate to what we read in Psalm 139 and elsewhere, that the Lord searches us and knows us? Before a thought has even crossed our mind, the Lord already knows it. For many people that is not a liberating feeling, but rather frightening. If the Lord knows us more deeply than we know ourselves, what does he encounter in us?! Can we, shouldn’t we, then only expect his judgment?

That then becomes a real question: Are we even able to walk before God’s face?!

Fleeing in Fear and Trembling⤒🔗

We only need to go to the beginning of the Bible to see that walking before God’s face is not a given. After sin has entered, Adam and Eve hide from the Lord, trying to escape from his all-seeing presence. Strikingly, it then says that the Lord does walk in the garden. But they do not approach him with an open mind and joy; they hide among the bushes. The Lord calls on man to come forth. "Where are you?" But why are Adam and Eve hiding from God? Do they not want him to see them? Earlier on the Bible writer tells us that they were ashamed of each other and made aprons from fig leaves. So, something has also broken between them. Shame arises when you realize that you have made a mistake and do not want to talk about it. Shame also means not daring to share your deepest thoughts with another person. You no longer feel safe. You withdraw from the other. Mind you, an apron of fig leaves and hiding among the bushes is just about the most inadequate camouflage imaginable. There is a growing estrangement between them, and they no longer dare face the Lord.

The wondrous and joyous thing is that the Lord does not avoid them but rather seeks them out! The Belgic Confession of Faith expresses the Lord’s reaction in inimitable beautiful terms in Article 17: "We believe that, when he saw that man had thus plunged himself into physical and spiritual death and made himself completely miserable, our gracious God in his marvellous wisdom and goodness set out to seek man when he trembling fled from him." No, this goodness does not immediately make Adam and Eve flee to God’s mercy. When the Lord demands an accounting, they do not acknowledge their guilt, but duck and deflect. They give an audacious response: "The woman you gave me..." We know how this kind of apology works, by pointing the finger at others: first blaming the woman, then blaming the Lord himself.

The Belgic Confession then follows with the amazing and wonderful words that God “…comforted man with the promise that he would give him his Son… to crush the serpent and to make man blessed.”

Before God’s Face←⤒🔗

If we can know and trust the Lord to be the one who seeks us in Christ so that we in turn can find him, it implies that he knows what kind of people we are. There is no point in pretending that we are better than we really are, and that is not necessary either, because God so loved the world that he came in Christ to save us by reconciling us to himself. Therefore, we do not need to hide. Article 26 of the Belgic Confession of Faith states, “There is no creature in heaven or on earth who loves us more than Jesus Christ.” He is the friend who became our substitute. By faith in him, we have peace with God. We can therefore walk before his face—with him.

But how can this be applied and become real? Should we as “little independents” give it substance ourselves? Is it now up to us to put it into effect? When we see and experience it this way, we are liable to forget that the Lord searches us, knows us, and tests us, and we run the risk of ignoring all the sin and evil that dwells within us. We may well apply ourselves to working hard in society and perhaps even be convinced that in doing so we are building God’s kingdom; however, do we realize that you can also hide from God in your activities and efforts?

How then is it possible to walk before God’s face? It is possible by living through the Word that “is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deuteronomy 30:14). And that Word is not a law that puts the onus back on yourself; that Word is Christ, says Paul (Romans 10). God’s commandments are "living oracles" (Acts 7:38). Therefore, we can pray as in Psalm 25, that “integrity and uprightness” will preserve us. That is making the declaration that I am not upright and true in myself, so I can not walk before God’s face on my own, but if the Lord is gracious to me and grants me a “right spirit” deep within, only then is it possible. So, open your heart and life to God and pray to him to turn you from every path that ends in disaster and, instead, to lead you “in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139). We need that, too, because the psalmist of Psalm 19 questions whether we are even able to discern our own hidden faults and errors. In the same breath he prays for the Lord to cleanse him from them. And we also know that life before God’s face takes place in the deepest, most secret places, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6).

Seeing in the Commandment...←⤒🔗

But does it really make sense to walk our path with God? Isn’t this world so complicated that we do not even know the effects of our actions? Wouldn’t it be better to follow the “experts”? Without a doubt society used to be less complex. In the past you could see the consequences of your actions. Whether you were a bootmaker, a blacksmith, or a sheriff, or whether you were a farmer’s wife, a midwife, or a saleswoman at the markets, the net effect of your work or your activity was visible and discernible. Today, we anxiously wonder if we did the right thing buying those cheap shirts that were possibly made by child labour. And the gasoline my car runs on—not to mention the associated air pollution—could this too adversely affect poorer communities? If people in other parts of the world pay the price for my latest gadget desires, then I should take responsibility for that. If we walk before God, we cannot ignore this.

During the Secession, it was said that we are clear-eyed concerning God’s commandment, but blind in its application. The meaning is clear: that we see in the commandment the path the Lord shows us, but we remain ignorant as to how to apply it. The great theologian of the Secession, Herman Bavinck, also used this expression for thinking about ethics. If we live in God’s presence, then we live by the Word, which is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. We then take the next step by that light. But that light does not show us all the further consequences. Only God knows that. Nevertheless, we may believe that the Lord blesses the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17). And we can walk our path with confidence, cognizant of the Lord’s work. In Ephesians 2:10 we read of “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” If we believe this, we know we will not end up in quicksand, but that the Lord will "guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:79).

Luther says in his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians that Christians are therefore less afraid of what others can do to them, because they know—by faith—that others, too, are in God’s hands. That faith is put to the test. There may be temptation, but it still allows us to approach others openly. We do not live in a world where people alone call the shots, but in a world where Christ has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). And we can count on that! It is not simply a matter of faith; it is a reality. When the Lord goes before us with his righteousness and peace, to use the concluding words of Psalm 85, it is not about following his commandments, but about believing that he is there and to look to him. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “God answers sincere prayers and responsible action.” Responsible action, then, means trusting that this world is built on our following the way of God’s commandments. Psalm 1 assures us that if we do this, we will be fruitful and not misguided.

Joy of the Law?!←⤒🔗

We live in tense times. We face major challenges. How will we navigate this? I will try to illustrate this by means of two issues that are of great concern to us: the COVID-19 crisis and the issue of racism.

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted our limitations. Our government had to take all sorts of measures, without knowing for certain whether they would have great or little effect. We did not yet know the virus well; we did not know how it would evolve. We had to act and live wisely, but we did not have it under control. The COVID-19 pandemic demanded that we live and act in faith despite not knowing how it would unfold. Not knowing the consequences of our actions is not unique to us. Politicians, companies, and even we ordinary people make all sorts of decisions without really knowing where they will lead. But the difference is that with COVID-19, hospitals were overflowing, and as a society, we could not allow people to die horrible deaths nor allow the virus to spread. That is why there was a COVID-19 crisis. But not having life “under control” is true for all times and places. Do we want to acknowledge this? It would be good if, at least in the church, we realized that we must do what is wise and right.

And take note of what the killing of George Floyd by a police officer has unleashed worldwide. “Institutional racism”: Is that alive among us? Does a sense of “white” superiority perhaps live somewhere hidden in our hearts? How do we deal with that question before God? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us that the essence of the law and the prophets is to ask yourself how you would like people to “do unto you”—and then put that into practice with others (Matthew 7:12). Then we are not necessarily guiltless if, after a cursory reflection, we believe we make no distinction whatsoever between “white,” “brown,” and “black” people, and therefore believe that we do not discriminate. Jesus asks that we truly put ourselves in the shoes of others: in the shoes of those desperate people in Africa who do not see a future; in the shoes of those people who, because of their background and skin colour, can not find work; in the shoes of those people who are on the receiving end of all sorts of “funny” remarks. Jesus urges us to listen attentively to what we hear in the stories of people with a different skin colour and, as it were, to put ourselves in their shoes, and to not leave it at that, but to do what we ourselves would want to experience from others. And do not be too quick to deal with and dismiss that question; it is an essential element of walking uprightly before God.