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Psalms

Psalm 25

By Pastor Doug
David's prayer of dedication and comfort
It's a great source of comfort when you feel the Lord's hand guiding and moving while you are in one of those difficult circumstances of life.  When that happens, I wonder, how in the world does an atheist cope with life with only their own understanding and their own strength.  Life is hard and as we grow in holiness and righteousness we learn all the more to lean on Jesus Christ and to keep Him at the center of our life.  

 

A Psalm of David.

 1 To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
 2 O my God, I trust in You;
         Let me not be ashamed;
         Let not my enemies triumph over me.
 3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
         Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
In this is the first section of the Psalm, we see prayers or petitions in times of trouble.  We've all been in trouble at one time or another and we'll all likely be there again.  So knowing how David dealt with those times is important to us.


 


David started by declaring that he lifted his soul to the Lord.  All our trust and faith lie in one place, that is placing Jesus Christ right in the center of every aspect of our life.  As we lift our soul to the Lord, its implied that we don't lift our soul to another.  Psalm 24 asked the question………..       
 3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
         Or who may stand in His holy place?
 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
         Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,       


 


The Hebrew word for soul is Nephesh.  It is translated to many words; life; mind; heart; body; desire; yourself……… your identity!!  This word Nephesh is used repeatedly in Genesis during the creation.  It is the 'you' he put in you.  It is the thing that makes you …….. you!  It's the thing that makes you different from everyone else.  To lift up your soul to God is to give the 'you' he created back to Him, the creator.  To give your soul to God is to stand up and say I know he gave me free choice…….. I choose God.  It's in Him alone I place my trust.


 


We know that we don't understand everything about Him, yet, we can trust in Him and not be ashamed.  David prays that his enemies wouldn't triumph over him.  And its his prayer that no one who waits on the Lord would ever be disappointed with defeat.  Yet, we know, we will face defeat in our life.  We will find ourselves in those places where we are crying out to God and asking where is He? Why do we feel all alone?


 


We feel those things because we are relying on our feelings instead of what we know.  We must know that he is there, never changing, always present; even when we can't see Him or feel Him.  Our trust can't be in victory as we define.  If that were the case, David would have never went to war; Noah wouldn't have had to build an ark for a hundred years; Moses wouldn't have had to wander the desert for 40 years.  Victory is defined by God………… and sometimes His definition doesn't look very victorious to us.


 


Psalm 25:4-5


4Show me Your ways, O LORD;
         Teach me Your paths.
 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
         For You are the God of my salvation;
         On You I wait all the day.
So David starts the prayer in times of trouble by giving his soul, his very life to God.  Now he asks God to show him the ways of the Lord.  Again, we see it implied that David is ready to forego his own paths and his own ways.  He's ready for God's ways and God's paths, even though sometimes those ways are scary and don't make sense to us.


 


David shows that he is teachable; asking to be lead in truth.  And he waits on God, all day if necessary……….. he waits.


 


And we must be teachable in the ways of the Lord.  We have to be willing to wait, because our salvation is in Him alone and no other.  Giving up on waiting is to take our soul back and do it our way but we've given that to Him and we wait.  Most of the time it's our way that got us in trouble in the first place.  It is His way that will deliver us.


         


Psalm 25:6-7
6
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
         For they are from of old.
 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
         According to Your mercy remember me,
         For Your goodness' sake, O LORD.


In times of trouble we need make sure that our life is firmly in the hands of the Lord and that we are seeking the path the Lord has marked for us.  We can have confidence in the tender mercies of the Lord.  We can remember that lovingkindness of old.  It's an everlasting plan from the beginning of time to save us.  He has gone to great lengths to save us.  He has made a way for us to have our sins forgiven.  We need to make sure we've done that.


 


Psalm 25:8-11
 8 Good and upright is the LORD;
         Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
 9 The humble He guides in justice,
         And the humble He teaches His way.
 10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth,
         To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
 11 For Your name's sake, O LORD,
         Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.


David praises the Lord, He is good and upright.  Because of that He teaches us.  He will take someone like you and I who recognize we are sinners and He will show us the way.  Verse 9 confirms that 'the way' is His way.  We know Jesus is 'the Way'.  That's what they called Christianity early on………The Way.  They were right in calling it that.  It is the way, it's His way.  God's way is referred to 4 times in this Psalm.


 


God will deal with the proud and haughty harshly.  He will bring them down.  For the humble, for the broken and contrite heart, He teaches His way.  He shows us the paths for mercy and truth and for His name's sake.  He will do that which is in his nature to do.  That is love his creation even though we've not done so to Him.  He loved us so much that he sent us His son.


 


Psalm 25:12-15


 12 Who is the man that fears the LORD?
         Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
 13 He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
         And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
 14 The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him,
         And He will show them His covenant.
 15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
         For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
God will teach the man or woman that fears Him.  He will honor a life that honors Him.  When we give our life to Him, He will take it and use it.  We'll suddenly find ourselves doing things we didn't know we could do.  That's because we can't do them by ourselves.  God will change us and shape us into something usable and then spend our lives for His glory in His way.


 


Verse 14 says the secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.  Hey, I want to know the secret………..How about you?  The secret of the Lord might also be said 'the counsel'.  The secret is the Holy Spirit speaking truth into your life.  It's the Spirit of God counseling you through your conscience, your intuitions, your fears, desires and through his word.  It's God speaking into your life in whatever way He chooses.


 


David says in verse 15 that he plans on keeping His eyes toward the Lord.  We might say we'll keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.  We'll grab onto him and hold on tight.  When the trouble comes…….. we'll hold on tighter because He will use that trouble to His glory and he will rescue us from those times.


 


Verse 15 ends the praise in times of confidence.  And now in verse 16 we see petitions David makes in Times of trouble.


 


Psalm 25:16-22
 16 Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
         For I am desolate and afflicted.
 17 The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
         Bring me out of my distresses!
 18 Look on my affliction and my pain,
         And forgive all my sins.
 19 Consider my enemies, for they are many;
         And they hate me with cruel hatred.
 20 Keep my soul, and deliver me;
         Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
 21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
         For I wait for You.
         
 22 Redeem Israel, O God,
         Out of all their troubles!


David offers some very specific requests.  He asks God to turn to him and have mercy.  David felt alone and troubled in this circumstance in his life.  His heart was broken and he wanted God to look and see the pain.  In verse 18 David asked God to forgive his sins.  The source of all trouble is sin. At the root of all pain and distress is sin.  David knew that and asked that his sins be forgiven.


 


David puts his case before the Lord.  He asked God to look at him and then look at his enemies.  Here he was seeking the Lord and there were his enemies of hatred and cruelty.  David trusted God for His decision and His ability to deal with the present circumstance the enemies were using to cause David grief.  These circumstances were danger (v 15); loneliness (v 16); broken heartedness (v 17); regrets (v 18); fear (v 19-20); despair (v 21-22);


When David was in these circumstances, he trusted and waited on the Lord.  He wanted integrity and uprightness to preserve him.  So he waited for God to move on his behalf and on behalf of all the land of Israel.