Uzziah was sixteen when he took the throne and unstoppable for decades, as long as he sought the LORD. Then five words turn the story: after Uzziah became powerful.

Success has ruined more people than failure ever has. Today, read like someone whose strength is on loan, because it is, and because that is the safest thing strength can be.

Uzziah and Ahaz failed in opposite directions, pride and apostasy, and both stories pivot on the same hinge: what a man does when no one can tell him no. Jotham alone finished well, and Chronicles gives the reason in one clause: he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God.

Psalm 23 is what steadfast feels like from the inside. Not a man gripping his own power but a sheep who knows the shepherd's voice through pastures and valleys alike. The safest position on today's pages is not the throne. It is following.