to lead or guide someone along a way toward a destination.
At its core this is a plain word for leading, but the Bible uses it in a very particular way. It almost never means simply to move someone from here to there. It means to set a person on a road and show the direction, so the one being led still has to walk, while the guide is the one who knows and chooses the way.
Most often God is the one who leads, and the leading is tied to his character. Writers rarely leave it bare: God leads
- in his faithful love
- by his justice
- along a level path
- by his good Spirit
The guidance carries the moral coloring of the Guide, which is why this became Israel's word for being led by God, both in the great memory of the exodus and in the private prayer, lead me.
The same word stretches outward. It can describe a person leading others, a king shepherding his people, even a father's instruction or a person's honesty acting as a guide. In its widest reaches it describes God leading the stars in their courses, and once, darkly, God leading whole nations off into ruin. Through all of it the picture holds steady: a traveler on a way, a destination ahead, and a guide who chooses the road.
Nuances
Whether Psalm 73:24 envisions being taken to God after death, or only an unbroken relationship with God that death cannot end.
- minorityIt looks past death to being received into God's presence, a hope of personal life beyond the grave.; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms II: 51-100, Anchor Bible (1968)
- majorityIt affirms a communion with God that death cannot sever, without asserting a developed doctrine of life after death.; Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2, Hermeneia (2005); John Goldingay, Psalms 42-89, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament (2007); Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalmen 60-150, BKAT XV/2 (1989)