I’ve heard this scripture taught to mean that while we may have our own ideas, God’s ideas are more important, and our ideas are wrong.

A friend of mine said that he had heard it taught that while we may make our plan, God sovereignly takes over the plan from there and does what He wants with it.

Neither of those interpretations of this scripture are accurate.

“Deviseth” in the Hebrew means “to devise” or “to think”.

Psalm 37:4 says “Delight thyself also in the LORD; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

If we understand that scripture to mean that God puts His desires in our heart and that our desires and His desires become indistinguishable, then we can also see that when we purpose in our heart to move towards a goal, or we desire to do something, God will give us the steps or support our steps to reach that end. That doesn’t mean we get everything we desire in our heart, but it does mean that when you trust God to lead you and you need His guidance, you can trust your desires and His peace to lead you.

As he “directs” our steps, He establishes them.

Literally as if He is lifting us up and supporting each step we take.

When we trust in Him and we seek His direction, the peace of God can lead us in our decision making. When we decide, we trust Him to then support and establish the steps we take.

We can’t always sit still and expect the end to come to us. We usually have to take a “step of faith” and see God establish one step at a time. Each step may make the path clearer, even when we can’t see the end from where we are in the journey. As we look back on all of the steps, we have taken to get us to where we want to be, we can see God’s handiwork supporting and confirming that He established our path.