My Notes
What Does Psalms 17:5 Mean?
David prays: hold up my steps in your paths so my feet don't slip. It's a prayer for sustained faithfulness — not just for direction, but for traction. He knows where the path is. He needs God to keep him on it.
The word "hold up" (tamak) means to grasp, to support, to sustain. David isn't asking God to show him the way. He's asking God to hold him on the way. The path is clear. The danger is slipping off it.
"My goings" (ashurim) specifically refers to the tracks or course of one's life — the habitual direction. David is asking God to superintend not just his big decisions, but his daily patterns. The feet that could slip aren't failing in dramatic moments. They're losing traction in the ordinary walk.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where are you most in danger of slipping — not falling dramatically, but gradually losing traction?
- 2.Do you tend to pray more for guidance (where to go) or for grip (staying where you already are)?
- 3.What daily habits or patterns need God's 'holding up' to keep you on the right path?
- 4.How does admitting you can't sustain your own faithfulness feel — frightening or freeing?
Devotional
"Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." This is a prayer for grip, not guidance.
David isn't lost. He knows the path. He can see where he's supposed to walk. His prayer isn't "show me where to go" — it's "keep me from sliding off where I'm already going." The danger isn't confusion. It's slippage.
This is so honest about how spiritual failure actually works. Most people don't fall because they chose the wrong path. They fall because they lost traction on the right one. The slip is gradual. The drift is subtle. You're still on the path, still headed in the right direction — and then your foot slides. Not a dramatic leap into rebellion. A quiet, almost imperceptible loss of grip.
David's prayer acknowledges that he can't sustain his own faithfulness. He needs God to hold him up. The strength to stay on the path doesn't come from the walker. It comes from the one who holds the walker.
This might be the most practical prayer you can pray today: Lord, I know where I should be walking. Hold me there. Don't let me slip. Not in the dramatic moments — in the daily ones. In the ordinary steps where traction is lost quietly.
Grip me. Hold me. Keep me.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Hold up my goings in thy paths,.... Which being spoken by David in his own person, and for himself, shows that he was…
Hold up my goings in thy paths - He had been enabled before this to keep himself from the ways of the violent by the…
This psalm is a prayer. As there is a time to weep and a time to rejoice, so there is a time for praise and a time for…
My steps have held fast to thy tracks,
My feet have not slipped.
The A.V. is grammatically untenable. He describes his…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture