A plain path: Elder Mark Green “Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies” (Ps. 27.11).
We have great need of the instruction of the Lord. Our way – the way we went by nature and the way our flesh still lusts to go – is the broad way, and it leads to destruction. If we would walk in God’s way, then we must be taught what it is and where it is and how to walk therein. The child of God, coming to his Father for divine instruction, must confess his ignorance and weakness. This psalm begins, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” If we are to have light, He must give it. Without it we are in darkness and will never find our way. We need the light of grace and the light of the gospel to walk rightly.
David desired to be lead in a “plain path.” A plain path is a straight path. The way of the wicked is crooked and devious. He dodges hither and yon as he seeks to avoid detection. A man who is walking uprightly can walk straight ahead, since he has nothing to be ashamed of. That is where God leads us. We will never have to be ashamed of walking this way.
Paul said that he “pressed toward the mark,” which language depicts a runner straining toward the finish line. The shortest distance to the finish is a straight line. If we swerve back and forth we are only wasting time. Those who are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine are not going to walk in a “plain path,” are they?
It is the nature of things that wicked men are ever seeking to find something in the lives of God’s people that can be used against them. It was true with our Lord, in whom they found nothing but uprightness, and it is also true with us. When we make a public profession of faith we have placed ourselves in a position to be ridiculed by those who hate God and godliness.
So, since we represent a great God and a great cause, we need to be very careful that our walk is indeed godly – because of our enemies. They will seek to find fault, and surely they will be able to find it in us, for we are not sinless. Notwithstanding that, let us so live that, though they may occasionally find fault with our conduct, they cannot gainsay our intent and our desire. Let us make it clear that we want to live a godly life and that we are trying to do so, even though we sometimes fail in many particulars.
I found a very interesting comment upon this verse, written by Robert Skinner in 1636: “If a man, traveling in the King’s highway, be robbed between sun and sun, satisfaction is recoverable upon the county where the robbery was made; but if he takes his journey in the night, being an unseasonable time, then it is at his own peril; he must take what falls. So, if a man keep in God’s ways, he shall be sure of God’s protection; but if he stray out of them, he exposeth himself to danger.”