The Daily Word

 

Yesterday we looked at a prayer for guidance from God and today we finish that same verse with a further connected prayer once that guidance has been received. The full content of the verse in Psalm 5 is as follows: “Lead me, O Lord... make Your Way straight before my face”.

I live just a stone’s throw from an old Roman road. We are indebted to the Romans who built an infrastructure to enable them to move about in Britain as securely, safely and quickly as was possible in those far-off days. One of the key features of a Roman road was that it was constructed, as far as the landscape would allow, straight. They did not want to be ambushed by hostile natives, so they limited bends in their routes, because it wasn’t possible to see round bends.

The prayer issued by the psalmist has that same thought in mind, to be able to see ahead where God is leading us and, as a result of that vision, to avoid obstructions and hindrances to our Christian walk.

I realise that in some ways this might be seen to go against the “walk by faith and not by sight” principle but all the psalmist is wanting is to fail to be distracted by things that take him away from the route that God has planned and where God is leading him. He is conscious of his humanity and our tendency to be diverted from the path by outside influences.

The word ‘straight’ also in olden days had a secondary meaning of being narrow. And this too is a prayer we can share with the psalmist. That we can see the limits of our path with God and stick as closely as we can to the One who is leading us. God’s Word provides our detailed ‘map’ and handbook for our journey and warns us of the dangers of reverting to our old lifestyle or relying on our own understanding. May the Lord always make His Way ‘straight’ for each of us today and every day.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church