The Low Valley and Plain Road

In Nephi’s heartfelt lamentation about his own weakness and struggle with his brothers, he prayed these words, “O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!” (2 Nephi 4:32).  At this time he felt poignantly his sins and was seeking the Lord’s help to be more faithful and righteous amidst his own difficult circumstances.  This is the only scripture that speaks of “the low valley” or “the plain road.” So what did Nephi mean exactly by these two phrases?        

Perhaps we learn something about what Nephi meant by comparing “the plain road” with the other two references to roads in Nephi’s account.  In the vision of the tree of life there were many who were “lost from his view, wandering in strange roads” (1 Nephi 8:32).  Later Nephi described those led away by temptation: “And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost” (1 Nephi 12:17).  The “strange roads” and “broad roads” mentioned here seem to be in contrast with the “plain road” that Nephi sought to be traveling on.  Perhaps we might say that the strange, broad roads are the ways of the world that are meant to entice us away from the simple gospel path that the Savior asks us to travel on.  The Savior would later teach, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14).  I think that Nephi was praying for help to stay on that straight and narrow path, a road that is not extravagant or exciting from a worldly perspective—it’s a “plain” road that requires us to be “strict” in our adherence to the principles of the gospel. 

               To “walk in the path of the low valley” to me seems to have reference to faithfully enduring the trials we are called to path through.  This famous verse from Psalms comes to mind and perhaps Nephi was referring to it: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).  The fact that the valley in Nephi’s prayer was “low” that we must walk through perhaps is reminiscent of the Savior who walked the lowest path of all: “The Son of Man hath descended below them all” (D&C 122:8).  Nephi spoke of a valley earlier in the same chapter, “Why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?” (2 Nephi 4:26).  Nephi was called to pass through very sorrowful and low points in his life, and this time in particular right after his father died when his brothers wanted to take his life must have felt like he was indeed walking in a valley with mountains of difficulty above him.  All of us surely have similar times in our lives when we need to plead for the Lord’s help to walk our own low valleys and stay strict in the plain road of the gospel.