Ps 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
Now we really get down to meat of this verse. We learn why the Psalmist is asking for God to teach him His way and lead him in His path, it is because of his enemies. Now many of us will pass this verse off as not relevant as most people feel they have no real enemies. I mean we have people we may not get along with or giving us a hard time, but we would not really apply our English word enemy to these people. When we think of an enemy we think of someone who is out to do us great harm and we must defend ourselves with force if need be.
The word in Hebrew that is used here for enemy is sharer which means an enemy or one who is hostile to you. Rabbi Hirsch relates this word to shor which is really a word for a watcher who is hostile; it also has the idea of being excited. Basically this sharer may not necessarily fall into our understanding of an enemy. It could be a boss or a spouse who just has it in for you that they watch you’re every move to catch you in some mistake or fault just so they can let you have it. I remember James Dobson when he was on Focus on the Family told the story of a woman married to a man who found fault with everything she did, no matter how hard she tried. One morning the husband demanded that she make his two eggs, one fried and one scrambled. She used great care in the preparation and did everything just right. When she put the plate in front of her husband he looked at it and frowned. She asked what was wrong and he said: “You fried the wrong egg.” That is a sharar.
I have a friend who said how her ex-husband would do this mainly to manipulate her or to deflect any of his faults onto her. Sounds familiar? I heard of a woman who wanted to be in charge of the food pantry in her church. She was given the job but another objected saying she was more qualified and educated and that she should do it. So the woman who felt called to this work had it taken away and given to the more “qualified woman” and then she backed out and nobody was doing it. The woman who took this job was a sharar. I think most of us have had an experience with someone with sharar and can give their own horror story. This is the person that this Psalmist is seeking to avoid. He is asking God to direct his every step and path so if this person this sharar finds fault they are going to have to go to God with their complaint.
Pastors know the sharar’s very well. Every pastor has them in their church. It is that old boy who will find fault with the way you dress, the way you pray, the way comb your hair. I mean you can’t even sneeze without him discussing the value of that sneeze, its style and its worth. He is the one who will try to out pastor the pastor who is convinced he would make a better pastor or he knows better than the pastor how to pastor, he is a sharar.
When I was in seminary I was warned about the two most dangerous people in the church. The one is that sharar, that person who will watch you very closely so that he can find fault with everything you do. The danger with that person is that he will discourage you and bring you down. There is another sharar in the church however. That is that little old lady who will think you are the greatest person to every grace a pulpit. She will just praise you to death as to how wonderful you are and how you’re just such an inspiration. Yes, she is also a sharar who watches your every step to just praise you. The danger with her is that you will believe her. In both cases the enemy accomplishes what he wants, keeping you from performing your calling of shinning the light on Jesus. If the enemy can’t get you to doubt your calling he has plenty of sharar’s in reserve to do it for him. If he can’t get you to shine the light on yourself, he has plenty of sharar’s there who can do that for him as well.
There are just times we need to take all that criticism and all that praise and give it to God and say, “I am going to let you teach me your way and I am going to let you lead me in your paths and if people don’t like it they can just belly ache to you and if they just love the work I do I will just deflect that praise off of me and onto you (which will be a lot harder than giving you the criticism) for I am just simply walking in your path and your way.
Note that the Psalmist is saying: “Because of my sharar.” He wants God to teach him His ways and lead Him in His paths because of his enemies or sharar. I was surprised to find that the translators used the English word because for the Hebrew word ma’am. The English word because is a good word to use for ma’an in this context, it is just I rarely see it used that way. But that is terrific, because ma’am is a word to express the idea for a purpose, an intent to a certain end. Because expresses this idea, yet ma’an carries a little more. It is not only because of his enemy, but by using the word ma’am the Psalmist is also saying that he wishes for his enemy to learn something from this.
You see God is a multitasker. He may give you a miracle which you think is just for you, the only thing is that miracle will affect the lives of many around you to bless them as well. There was a Christian movie released recently called the War Room. The main character gives his life to Jesus and seeks to have Him teach him His way and to lead him in His path. That path led to going to his former boss to confess a criminal act. He could have gotten away with it but He knew the path of God led to a confession which could send him to prison. He confessed it to his boss. The result was that his boss was forced to take a close look at his own relationship with God.
I believe this is what the Psalmist is really asking. He is not just asking for his deliverance from his enemies, but by walking down God’s path his enemies might really examine their relationship with God. God is a multitasker; He is not adverse to granting two or three miracles for the price of one.
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