What Does Psalm 143:10 Mean?
Train me to do what delights you, for you are my God; your good breath leads me on level ground.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.THE KEY
God’s good breath does not merely tell you the way; it leads you onto level ground where the way becomes walkable.
THE MEANING
Your God’s good breath is present as a guide, teaching you to do what accords with God’s will. It leads you into מִישׁוֹר (mishor, level ground and uprightness), where the way can be walked.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must already know how to do God’s will before you can be led into it.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
Breath or moving air, heard as breath, wind, and the living spirit.
The one word רוּחַ (ruach, breath, wind, spirit) holds what English divides into breath, wind, and spirit; here, that ruach is called good and placed at the center of guidance. Its consonantal echo in רְוָחָה (revachah, relief or room) links breath’s movement with a sense of release and opened space.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Breath, wind, or spirit.
רוּחַ
One Hebrew word holds the meanings English separates; here, “thy spirit” carries the language of breath as well.
revachah: Relief, respite, or room.
רְוָחָה
It echoes the same consonants ר־ו־ח, associating relief with space opening up.
מִישׁוֹר
mishor
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ר
y-sh-r
To be straight, even, or level.
“level ground” in this verse is mishor. The destination is both landscape and moral image: uprightness is pictured as level country, ground that can be traversed. The verse makes the straight way something you are led into, not an abstract measure held out of reach.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, or upright.
יָשָׁר
It shows that the root’s straightness can describe both even ground and upright conduct.
yosher: Uprightness or straightness.
יֹשֶׁר
This branch names the quality of being straight, linking the terrain of mishor with the way a person moves.
לַמְּדֵנִי
lammedeni
GROWS FROM
ל־מ־ד
l-m-d
To learn or teach.
“train” in this verse is lammedeni. The Hebrew word family spans learning and teaching, and the line gives that learning a direction: “to do” God’s will. Instruction comes into view as something practiced, not merely heard.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn; in a teaching form, to teach.
לָמַד
The shared root holds both sides of instruction, learning and teaching, in a single word family.
limmud: A trained or taught person; a learner.
לִמּוּד
It shows teaching as a formation that stays with the learner.
melammed: One who teaches.
מְלַמֵּד
This branch names the one who gives instruction, illuminating the speaker’s request to be taught into action.
THE PATTERN
God’s guidance teaches the learner through movement into a way made clear and walkable.
Show me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.I will bring the blind on a way they have not known, and set them walking along paths they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them, and the crooked into straight. These things I will do for them, and I will not let go of them.But when he comes, the breath of truth, he will lead you along the way into all truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will bring word back to you of the coming things.THE THREAD
On the way of wisdom I have pointed you; I have led you on straight paths.The phrase “right paths” uses יֹשֶׁר (yosher, uprightness or straightness), from the same י־ש־ר (y-sh-r) root as מִישׁוֹר (mishor, level ground and uprightness) in Psalm 143:10. The connection turns uprightness into terrain underfoot: teaching becomes a path the reader is led along.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us