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I. THE BIBLE MAKES A GREAT DEAL IN ITS TEACHING ABOUT THE WAYS OF MEN.

1. There is the way of the transgressor, which is hard; and the way of the fool, which is right in his own eyes; and the way of the slothful, which is a hedge of thorns; and the way of the wicked, which is as darkness. And there is the way of the righteous, which is plain, and which the Lord knows; and the way of the saint, which is preserved; and the way which is like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

2. There is variety in the ways of individual men at different periods of their life. There is the peculiar bent and passion of the old man, the characteristic of the man in middle life, and, differing from these, the way of a young man.

II. WHAT IS MEANT BY "CLEANSING THE WAY." It is something very deep and pure which is intended, or Job would never have said, "What is man that he should be clean?" It is something very practical and searching, or Isaiah would not have begun his prophecies with the call, "Wash you, make you clean," etc. It is something intended to cover the whole area of life, or it never would have been made an ordinance in the old dispensation to have the vessels and persons clean that came into the presence of God; nor would Jesus in the new, in so solemn a way have washed the feet of His disciples to make them "every whit clean." It is the cleanness which is part of God's life which is intended. God is of purer eyes than to look upon sin. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. It is the cleanness which is also the holiness of God — cleanness from sin, from evil, from guile, from insincerity; the very quality praised by the adoring angels when they cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy," in the presence of God. The question, therefore, means, "Wherewithal shall a young man lead a holy life like the life of the Holy God? Wherewithal shall he make his way the way of a saint?"

III. THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS — "By taking heed thereto according to God's Word." By taking God's Word as the light, the guide, and the director of the way; by considering your steps in the light of that Word; by taking that Word as the chart, the pilot, and the propeller of your way. For the young soul who receives this Word and makes it his bosom companion, who accepts its light as the guide of his way, who follows the Lord whom it commends — life from that hour is changed. His heart is fixed on the strength of God. His career is along the lines of the life of God. He will be no more a straw tossed in the wind, a dead log swung hither and thither by the swirl in the river, a wave driven this way and that by the wind; but a life — a stream from the life of God — a life made wise by the indwelling of God's truth in the mind, and by the constraint of His love in the heart.

(A. Macleod, D. D.)

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KJV: BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

WEB: How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.