Commit whatever you do to ADONAI [the LORD],
and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3, TLV
Pasture Time. Does this verse mean if we dedicate our plans to our Heavenly Father they will always succeed? We know the answer to that. Think COVID. Interestingly enough, to commit means to carry out a plan or pledge or bind ourselves to a certain policy. To dedicate what we’re doing to the LORD is more like giving time to and effort to His cause or plan.
You know what that sounds more like? Relationship.
The greatest architect in the world is only as good as his listening ability. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the building is, if the building doesn’t function in the way that the client needs and requested, the project is a failure. Because ultimately, the architect doesn’t own the building, it belongs to the client.
King David was a man after GOD’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). When David felt a passionate urge to build a “real” dwelling place for GOD, he sought out the prophet Nathan for advice and guidance (2 Samuel 7:1-3) — notice that the David who had spent his boyhood on the hills worshipping and praising GOD, gaining great wisdom and insights, didn’t even go to the LORD himself. Where was that special bond and relationship David had?
David may not have spoken to the LORD, but the LORD sure spoke to Nathan:
But it came to pass the same night that the word of ADONAI came to Nathan saying: “Go, tell My servant David: Thus says ADONAI: Are you to build Me a house for Me to dwell in? Since the day that I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt to this day I have not dwelt in a house, but have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. In all My journeying among all the children of Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’
“So now, thus you shall say to My servant David: Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot [the LORD of Hosts]: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make your name as great as the greatest on earth. I will also set up a place for My people Israel and will plant them, so they may dwell in their own place and not be disturbed again. Nor will the children of wickedness afflict them anymore as in the past, since the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. So I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, ADONAI declares to you that ADONAI will make a house for you.” (2 Samuel 7:4-11, TLV)
“ADONAI will make a house for you.” Okay, then. At first ADONAI scolds David for presuming he knew what the LORD of Hosts wanted. ADONAI reminds David that He was the one who raised David up to be king — from a pasture of sheep. But then, our Heavenly Father has compassion on David’s well-meaning intent, and gives the ultimate prophecy that He would make David’s name as great as the greatest, because from his lineage would come the Messiah, Jesus. What?! To be remembered not for building a temple that was destroyed three times, but for the Son of David, the Temple that atoned for our sins, then rose from the dead in three days!
What is David’s response? He goes straight to ADONAI in worship, praise, and gratitude (2 Samuel 7:18-29). He went back into relationship with the LORD. He went back to the “pasture.”
Perhaps, this is our reminder that those well-meaning plans we “commit” or “dedicate” that don’t work out need some serious relationship time. Go back to our “pasture” and listen. Besides, GOD may have an even better plan.
