My First Bible #5: Psalm 27:11

'...and lead me along a safe path.'  (Psalm 27:11)

On looking up this verse in the NIV, which is the version I tend to use today for my reading, I found that it is translated differently.   In contrast to the GNB, which talks about a safe path, the NIV describes a straight path.  Other translations use 'level'.   Here it is in its context (Psalm 27:11-12):

Teach me your way, Lord;
   lead me in a straight path
   because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
   for false witnesses rise up against me,
   spouting malicious accusations.

And in the Good News Bible

Teach me, Lord, what you want me to do,
   and lead me along a safe path,
   because I have many enemies.
Don't abandon me to my enemies,
   who attack me with lies and threats.

There is certainly justification in the context for describing this path as 'safe'. David, who wrote this psalm, sets God's guidance along the right path in the context of threats from his enemies. David spent time being pursued by Saul, then King of Israel, who was consumed with jealousy and bitterness about David. David knew what it was to have his life in danger.

When we look at the Hebrew word being translated here, there are also undertones of safety. The word is mîšôr, pronounced 'mee-shore'. It's used to describe level, and often elevated ground - in the way we might use 'plateau' and 'plain'.  There also seems to be implications of stability - Psalm 26:12 says: My feet stand on level (mîšôr) ground; in the great congregation I will praise the LORD. When occupying a piece of land or travelling along, a high, flat place would certainly be a place of safety - with limited places for an enemy to hide and ambush.  Finally, the Hebrew word is also used figuratively, to denote justice (in the same way, today we might talk about levelling the playing field, or being a straight shooter).

What else might this straight, level and safe path feel like?  It is also a place of clarity.  When one is stuck in the valleys, or hemmed in by hills, it is hard to see where you are going.  Indeed, when Isaiah talks of "a voice calling in the wilderness" (Isaiah 40:3, which we find to be John the Baptist, and in which we see that Isaiah is speaking ultimately of the coming of Jesus, Mark 1:3), that voice goes on to say: Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain (mîšôr) (Isaiah 40:4).

When I highlighted this verse in my Good News Bible all those years ago, I wasn't being pursued by the armies of a jealous king or a political enemy like David was.  However, I was navigating all the confusions of teenage life, and mainly the confusions inside my own head.  As I journeyed through, on either side of me there were thoughts of self-loathing, self-destructive behaviour, and intrusive thoughts.  It was not only a 'straight' path I longed for (which, by itself, merely denotes one of moral purity), but a 'safe' path, as expressed in the GNB.  I was very unsure of where God was leading me, but by the time I was reading this, I was growing more certain that I could trust in God's promises, and that his sovereign plan was safe.  This Psalm prays into that promise.

However, I can also reflect that the answer to this prayer is not always a 'yes' in every sense of the word.  We all long to be along a mîšôr path - on the plateau where we can see where we're going, where the ground is easy to traverse, where it's easy to see when enemies (or temptations, or any other dangers) are likely to attack and can head them off before they get there.   However, David knows this was not always his experience, as he writes so famously: even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.  For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).  I've often been told that the valley of in David's image would have been a narrow one where the sheep had to walk single-file behind the shepherd: they could not see where they were going and there would be no-where to run if danger came.  But nonetheless, they were still safe, and not alone, because they had their shepherd with them.  The comfort of the 'rod and staff', I'm told, would have been from the shepherd banging them against the sides of the valley so that they sheep could hear and follow.  Even when the path is not mîšôr, God is with us, and we are safe.

But we can, and should, still pray for those mîšôr moments: those times when we feel on top of the world, when we get a glimpse of our destination.  God gives us those times when we need them, to strengthen us for the valley moments, and whatever the path looks like, he is with us, and it is safe.

The summer I was 17 years old I read my Bible cover to cover for the first time.  I was captivated and completed the whole thing in 4 months.  Although I clearly read it at quite a pace, I still jotted down passages that sprang out to me in my still relatively new faith.  I still have that Bible, and the scraps of paper are still there, bookmarking each verse.  So I decided to go through, 18 years later, and visit each of them.  They are from the Good News Bible.