Psalms 25:1

Here we have David's professions of desire towards God and dependence on him. He often begins his psalms with such professions, not to move God, but to move himself, and to engage himself to answer those professions.

I. He professes his desire towards God: Unto thee, O Lord! do I lift up my soul, Psa 25:1. In the foregoing psalm (Psa 25:4) it was made the character of a good man that he has not lifted up his soul to vanity; and a call was given to the everlasting gates to lift up their heads for the King of glory to come in, Psa 25:1. To this character, to this call, David here answers, "Lord, I lift up my soul, not to vanity, but to thee." Note, In worshipping God we must lift up our souls to him. Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God; God must be eyed and the soul employed. Sursum corda - Up with you hearts, was anciently used as a call to devotion. With a holy contempt of the world and the things of it, by a fixed thought and active faith, we must set God before us, and let out our desires towards him as the fountain of our happiness.

II. He professes his dependence upon God and begs for the benefit and comfort of that dependence (Psa 25:2): O my God! I trust in thee. His conscience witnessed for him that he had no confidence in himself nor in any creature, and that he had no diffidence of God or of his power or promise. He pleases himself with this profession of faith in God. Having put his trust in God, he is easy, is well satisfied, and quiet from the fear of evil; and he pleads it with God whose honour it is to help those that honour him by trusting in him. What men put a confidence in is either their joy or their shame, according as it proves. Now David here, under the direction of faith, prays earnestly, 1. That shame might not be his lot: "Let me not be ashamed of my confidence in thee; let me not be shaken from it by any prevailing fears, and let me not be, in the issue, disappointed of what I depend upon thee for; but, Lord, keep what I have committed unto thee." Note, If we make our confidence in God our stay, it shall not be our shame; and, if we triumph in him, our enemies shall not triumph over us, as they would if we should now sink under our fears, or should, in the issue, come short of our hopes. 2. That it might not be the lot of any that trusted in God. All the saints have obtained a like precious faith; and therefore, doubtless, it will be alike successful in the issue. Thus the communion of saints is kept up, even by their praying one for another. True saints will make supplication for all saints. It is certain that none who, by a believing attendance, wait on God, and, by a believing hope, wait for him, shall be made ashamed of it. 3. That it might be the lot of the transgressors; Let those be ashamed that transgress without cause, or vainly, as the word is. (1.) Upon no provocation. They revolt from God and their duty, from David and his government (so some), without any occasion given them, not being able to pretend any iniquity they have found in God, or that in any thing he has wearied them. The weaker the temptation is by which men are drawn to sin the stronger the corruption is by which they are driven by it. Those are the worst transgressors that sin for sinning-sake. (2.) To no purpose. They know their attempts against God are fruitless; they imagine a vain thing, and therefore they will soon be ashamed of it.

III. He begs direction from God in the way of his duty, Psa 25:4, Psa 25:5. Once and again he here prays to God to teach him. He was a knowing man himself, but the most intelligent, the most observant, both need and desire to be taught of God; from him we must be ever learning. Observe,

1. What he desired to learn: "Teach me, not fine words or fine notions, but thy ways, thy paths, thy truth, the ways in which thou walkest towards men, which are all mercy and truth (Psa 25:10), and the ways in which thou wouldst have me to walk towards thee." Those are best taught who understand their duty, and know the good things they should do, Ecc 2:3. God's paths and his truth are the same; divine laws are all founded upon divine truths. The way of God's precepts is the way of truth, Psa 119:30. Christ is both the way and the truth, and therefore we must learn Christ.

2. What he desired of God, in order to this. (1.) That he would enlighten his understanding concerning his duty: "Show me thy way, and so teach me." In doubtful cases we should pray earnestly that God would make it plain to us what he would have us to do. (2.) That he would incline his will to do it, and strengthen him in it: "Lead me, and so teach me." Not only as we lead one that is dimsighted, to keep him from missing his way, but as we lead one that is sick, and feeble, and faint, to help him forward in the way and to keep him from fainting and falling. We go no further in the way to heaven than God is pleased to lead us and to hold us up.

3. What he pleads, (1.) His great expectation from God: Thou art the God of my salvation. Note, Those that choose salvation of God as their end, and make him the God of their salvation, may come boldly to him for direction in the way that leads to that end. If God save us, he will teach us and lead us. He that gives salvation will give instruction. (2.) His constant attendance on God: On thee do I wait all the day. Whence should a servant expect direction what to do but from his own master, on whom he waits all the day? If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with a resolution to do it, we need not question but that God will direct us in it.

IV. He appeals to God's infinite mercy, and casts himself upon that, not pretending to any merit of his own (Psa 25:6): "Remember, O Lord! thy tender mercies, and, for the sake of those mercies, lead me, and teach me; for they have been ever of old." 1. "Thou always wast a merciful God; it is thy name, it is thy nature and property, to show mercy." 2. "Thy counsels and designs of mercy were from everlasting; the vessels of mercy were, before all worlds, ordained to glory." 3. "The instances of thy mercy to the church in general, and to me in particular, were early and ancient, and constant hitherto; they began of old, and never ceased. Thou hast taught me from my youth up, teach me now."

V. He is in a special manner earnest for the pardon of his sins (Psa 25:7): "O remember not the sins of my youth. Lord, remember thy mercies (Psa 25:6), which speak for me, and not my sins, which speak against me." Here is, 1. An implicit confession of sin; he specifies particularly the sins of his youth. Note, Our youthful faults and follies should be matter of our repentance and humiliation long after, because time does not wear out the guilt of sin. Old people should mourn for the sinful mirth and be in pain for the sinful pleasures of their youth. He aggravates his sins, calling them his transgressions; and the more holy, just, and good the law is, which sin is the transgression of, the more exceedingly sinful it ought to appear to us. 2. An express petition for mercy, (1.) That he might be acquitted from guilt: "Remember not the sins of my youth; that is, remember them not against me, lay them not to my charge, enter not into judgment with me for them." When God pardons sin he is said to remember it no more, which denotes a plenary remission; he forgives and forgets. (2.) That he might be accepted in God's sight: "Remember thou me; think on me for good, and come in seasonably for my succour." We need desire no more to make us happy than for God to remember us with favour. His plea is, "according to thy mercy, and for thy goodness-sake." Note, It is God's goodness and not ours, his mercy and not our own merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin and all the good we stand in need of. This plea we must always rely upon, as those that are sensible of our poverty and unworthiness and as those that are satisfied of the riches of God's mercy and grace.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1. He who may approach Jehovah’s sanctuary must be one ‘who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity’ (Psa_24:4). Jehovah, and Jehovah alone, is the subject of his desires, his aspirations, his prayers. Cp. Psa_86:3; Psa_143:8; Lam_3:41.

As the verses are usually distichs, it has been conjectured with much probability that the line “on thee do I wait all the day,” which overweights Psa_25:5, originally belonged to Psa_25:1. Psa_25:3 a gains point by this transposition.

1–7. Petition for protection, guidance, and pardon.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 25:1 « [A Psalm] of David. » Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

A Psalm of David] An excellent psalm; the second of those seven called by the ancients penitential; and such as may well serve us for a pattern of our daily prayers; as wherein David beggeth three things (answerable to those two last petitions in the Lord’s prayer), first, pardon of sin; secondly, guidance of God’s good Spirit; thirdly, defence against his enemies (Beza). It appeareth that this psalm was made by David when he was well in years, Psa 25:7, after his sin in the matter of Uriah (that great iniquity, as he calleth it, Psa 25:11, saith Vatablus), and some gather, from Psa 25:19, that he framed this psalm when Absalom was up in arms against him, Psa 25:19 (compared with Psa 3:1). See also Psa 25:15; Psa 25:22. It may seem therefore that when he came to Mahanaim, 2Sa 17:24; 2Sa 17:27 (where God showed him marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city, Psa 31:21, and wherehence he was at the people’s request to help them, or to cause them to be helped, viz. by his hearty prayers for God’s assistance, 2Sa 18:3), he composed this psalm with more than ordinary artifice, viz. in order of alphabet, as he hath done also some few others, both for the excellency of the matter and likewise for help of memory; for which cause also St Matthew summeth up the genealogy of Christ into three fourteens; all helps being but little enough. Nazianzen and Sedulius have done the like; the former in his holy alphabet, Aρχην απαντων, &c., and the latter in his hymn, A Solis ortus cardine Beatus auctor saeculi, &c.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul] i.e. Praeparo cor meum, saith R. Solomon. My heart maketh its faithful addresses to thee (and not any other), with strength of desire and delight, with earnest expectation and hope of relief. Ad te orando non ad idola. See Jer 22:27 Deu 24:15 Psa 86:5, Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people’s minds to pray by prefacing Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, a prayer without the intention of the affection, is like a body without a soul; and yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one, a brainless head, and a soulless body; Antiquum obtinent, Isa 29:13, Buxtorf. Abbreviat. This people draweth nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downward, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us, theretbre, lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us; and pray God to draw us up to himself, as the loadstone doth the iron, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_25:1-3

Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

David depressed

I. David was at this time in a state of great trouble. This is the childrens path; it is the path most of Gods family walk in. It is not an uncommon path. The Master trod the path before them, and told His people to expect tribulation. In this Psalm we see affliction in every variety. David traces his afflictions up to his sins (Psa_25:18). All sin is the cause of suffering. If no sin, no suffering. If no body there would be no shadow. There may have been some searching out of peculiar sins. Times of affliction are usually times of deep searching of heart.

II. David was at this time depressed. The very expression lift up implies a previous casting down. Verse 16, he says, I am desolate and afflicted. The believer, compared with the unbeliever, is a strong man; he must needs be strong. But the strongest is not always strong. All borrowed strength is of necessity strength that fluctuates. Creature strength is dependent strength, and therefore it is but comparative weakness. Faiths wing does not always soar aloft; love does not always burn brightly. Unbelief always weakens. David looked to his troubles and was depressed. In our afflictions there are two especial dangers--that of despising them, as if they came fortuitously; and the danger of being encumbered and weighed down by them, looking at the circumstances, and not at the God of the circumstances.

III. David betakes himself to his remedy. The believer has but one remedy. The world talks of its many remedies, but all are ineffective. A general view of God, in the power of faith and by the power of the Holy Ghost, lifts up the soul. Nothing so lifts us up against soul trouble as when we are enabled to say, O my God, I trust in Thee. Is there anything above Gods promises? Yes, God Himself is above His promises, and the very substance of them. Our trust is in Him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

The nature of true prayer

This opening sentence is as if David had said, Let others lift up their souls to vanity, I will dare to be singular, I will lift up my soul to Thee. Holy resolution, blessed determination.

I. The realisation and recognition of the presence of God.

II. The abstraction from the influences of the world. I will lift up my soul.

III. The consecration and concentration of all the energies of the man. The consecration willing and loving. If the soul be lifted up all the powers are so.

IV. The results of such lifting up of the soul. We shall be--

1. Transported with the Divine nearness.

2. Transformed into the Divine likeness.

3. Translated into the Divine presence now and hereafter. (F. W. Brown.)

Uplifting the soul

It is not easy to do this. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. We may lift up hands and eyes and voices, but it is another thing to uplift the soul. Yet without this there is no real devotion. And the Christian will be no more satisfied than God. This marks the spiritual worshipper. He may have failed in words, but his soul has been lifted up to God. And the spirituality of religion is its enjoyment. It is good to draw near to God. Then we attend on the Lord without distraction. And when such a worshipper comes forth he will recommend Christ to others, and that not without effect. For his profiting will appear unto all men. His face shines. His heart speaks. His life speaks. His character speaks. He cannot but do good, even without design and without effort. (W. Jay.)

The uplift of the soul in prayer

Gotthold, in his Emblems, says, Doves have been trained to fly from place to place, carrying letters in a basket fastened to their necks or feet. They are swift of flight; but our prayers and sighs are swifter, for they take but a moment to pass from earth to heaven, and bear the troubles of our heart to the heart of God. These messengers no hostile force can detain; they penetrate the clouds, never linger on the way, and never desist until the Most High attends. A tyrant may shut up a godly man in the deepest dungeon, immure him between massive walls, and forbid him all intercourse with his fellow men, but these messengers he cannot restrain; in defiance of all obstacles they report to the Omniscient the affliction of the victim, and bring back to him the Divine consolation.

The lifting up of the soul to God

The names which he gives God are Jehovah and Elohim--the first taken from His nature, the other from His power; and he applieth them to himself, my strong Gods, including the persons of the Trinity. He leadeth us to God in our prayers, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? He that cometh to God must believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

1. First, He must love thee, and then He will defend thee. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. Those are foolish who seek His protection, not first having assurance of His love. If He be to thee Jehovah, then shall He also be to thee Elohim. His prayer is signified by his circumscription, I lift up my soul to Thee; and his faith, I trust in Thee. What is prayer but a lifting up of the heart to God, for the heart must first be affected, and then it will frame all the members of the body, and draw them up with it. Whereby it appeareth that there is no prayer or spiritual service acceptable to God but that which comes and is derived from the heart, My son, give Me thy heart Ye are praying, but your heart is as the eye of the fool everywhere. Sometimes ye are thinking of the earth, sometimes of your pleasure, sometimes sleeping, sometimes ye know not what ye are thinking. And sometimes your voice is repeating some idle and deaf sounds, your heart no whir being moved, but as a parrot, uttering uncertain sounds, or a bell, sounding it knows not what; so are ye with your mouth praising God, your heart being absented from Him.

2. Next, his faith is not carried about hither and thither, but only fixeth itself upon God.

3. Thirdly, the lifting up of the heart presupposeth a former dejection of his soul. (A. Symson.)

Phases of a pious soul

I. A pious soul rising to God. An indication of the true elevation of man; what is it?

1. The elevation of the soul, that is, the rational and spiritual nature, that which was the divinity within him.

2. It is the elevation of the soul to God. The soul going up in devout thought, in holy gratitude, in sublime adoration, in moral assimilation to the Infinite Jehovah.

3. It is the elevation of the soul to God by personal exertion. No man can lift up my soul for me.

II. A pious soul trusting in God. O my God, I trust in Thee. What does trust in the Lord imply?

1. A sense of dependency in the truster.

2. A belief in the sufficiency of the trusted.

III. A pious soul waiting upon God. On Thee do I wait all the day.

1. To wait means patience.

2. To wait means hope.

3. To wait means service.

IV. A pious soul praying to God. Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed. The prayer, from Psa_25:3-7, falls into two divisions.

1. Prayer for self.

(1) Prayer respecting Divine deliverance.

(2) Prayer respecting Divine guidance.

(3) Prayer respecting Divine remembrance.

2. Prayer for others.

(1) For success to the good.

(2) For defeat to the wicked. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Title. A Psalm of David. David is pictured in this Psalm as in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great transgression, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here; so that we see the very heart of "the man after God's own heart." It is evidently a composition of David's later days, for he mentions the sins of his youth, and from its painful references to the craft and cruelty of his many foes, it will not be too speculative a theory to refer it to the period when Absalom was heading the great rebellion against him. This has been styled the second of the seven Penitential Psalms. It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.

Subject and Division. The twenty-two verses of this Psalm begin in the original with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their proper order. It is the first instance we have of an inspired acrostic or alphabetical song. This method may have been adopted by the writer to assist the memory; and the Holy Spirit may have employed it to show us that the graces of style and the arts of poetry may lawfully be used in his service. Why should not all the wit and ingenuity of man be sanctified to noblest ends by being laid upon the altar of God? From the singularity of the structure of the Psalm, it is not easy to discover any marked divisions; there are great changes of thought, but there is no variation of subject; the moods of the writer's mind are twofoldprayer and meditation; and as these appear in turns, we should thus divide the verses. Prayer from Ps 25:1-7; meditation, Ps 25:8-10; prayer, Ps 25:11; meditation, Ps 25:12-15; prayer, Ps 25:16-22.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord. See how the holy soul flies to its God like a dove to its cote. When the storm winds are out, the Lord's vessels put about and make for their well remembered harbour of refuge. What a mercy that the Lord will condescend to hear our cries in time of trouble, although we may have almost forgotten him in our hours of fancied prosperity. Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul. It is but a mockery to uplift the hands and the eyes unless we also bring our souls into our devotions. True prayer may be described as the soul rising from earth to have fellowship with heaven; it is taking a journey upon Jacob's ladder, leaving our cares and fears at the foot, and meeting with a covenant God at the top. Very often the soul cannot rise, she has lost her wings, and is heavy and earth bound; more like a burrowing mole than a soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must, by God's assistance, exert all our powers to lift up our hearts. Let faith be the lever and grace be the arm, and the dead lump will yet be stirred. But what a lift it has sometimes proved! With all our tugging and straining we have been utterly defeated, until the heavenly loadstone of our Saviour's love has displayed its omnipotent attractions, and then our hearts have gone up to our Beloved like mounting flames of fire.

Whole Psalm. This is the first of the seven alphabetical Psalms, the others being the 34th, 37th, 111th, 112th, 119th, and

145th. They are specimens of that acrostic mode of writing which seems to have been once so fashionable among the Jews, as is testified by numerous instances of such composition, which are to be met with in their works. Other poetic artifices were likewise adopted. We find many instances of poems being so constructed, that a proper name, or some particular sentiment, would not infrequently be expressed by the initial letters of the verses. See Bartolocci's "Bibliotheca Rabbinica, "vol. 2 pg 260, where examples of such artifices are cited. George Phillips, B.D., in "The Psalms in Hebrew, with a Commentary."

1846.

Whole Psalm. This is the first fully alphabetic Psalm...The only lesson which the use of the alphabetic form may teach is this: that the Holy Spirit was willing to throw his words into all the moulds of human thought and speech; and whatever ingenuity man may exhibit in intellectual efforts, he should consecrate these to his Lord, making him the "Alpha and Omega" of his pursuits. Andrew A. Bonar.

Whole Psalm. Saving grace is a secret that no man knows but the elect, and the elect cannot know it neither without special illumination: 1. Special showingShew me thy ways, O Lord, saith David. 2. Barely showing will not serve the turn, but there must be a special teachingTeach me thy paths, Ps 25:4. 3. Bare teaching will not avail neither, but there must be a special inculcative teachingTeach me in thy ways, to Ps 25:8. 4. Inculcative teaching will not do the deed neither, but there must be a special directive teaching Guide in judgment and teach, Ps 25:9. 5. Directive teaching will not be sufficient neither, but there must be a special manuductive teachingLead me forth in thy truth, and teach me, Ps 25:5. 6. Manuductive teaching will not be effectual, but there must be also a special, choice teaching, a determining of the very will, an elective teachingHim shall he teach in the way that he shall choose, Ps 25:12. And what secret is this? not common grace, for that is not the secret of the elect, but special and peculiar grace. 1. The special grace of prayer Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul Ps 25:1. 2. A special grace of faithMy God, I trust in thee, Ps 25:2. 3. A special grace of repentanceRemember not the sins of my youth, etc., Ps 25:7. 4. A special grace of hopeMy hope is in thee, Ps 25:21. 5. A special grace of continual living in God's sight, and dependence upon God Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, Ps 25:15. 6. Which is the root of all God's special and eternal favour and mercy Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses; for they have been ever of old, Ps 25:6; even God's special mercy to him in particular, Ps 25:11. William Fenner, in "Hidden Manna, "1626.

Whole Psalm. In these four Psalms which immediately follow one another, we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of pietylying, standing, sitting, kneeling. In the twenty-second Psalm, he is lying all along, falling flat on his face, low grovelling on the ground, even almost entering into a degree of despair. Speaking of himself in the history of Christ in the mystery, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" In the twenty-third Psalm, he is standing, and through God's favour, in despite of his foes, trampling and triumphing over all opposition; "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing." In the twenty-fourth Psalm he is sitting, like a doctor in his chair, or a professor in his place, reading a lecture of divinity, and describing the character of that manhow he must be accomplished "who shall ascend into thy holy hill, "and hereafter be partaker of happiness. In this twenty-fifth Psalm, he is kneeling, with hands and voice lifted up to God, and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth; the one is a hearty beseeching of God's mercy, the other a humble bemoaning of his own misery. Thomas Fuller.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. The lifting up of the heart presupposes a former dejection of his soul. The soul of man is pressed down with sin and with the cares of this world, which, as lead doth the net, draweth is so down, that it cannot mount above till God send spiritual prayers, as cork to the net, to exalt it; which arise out of faith, as the flame doth out of the fire, and which must be free of secular cares, and all things pressing down, which showeth unto us that worldlings can no more pray than a mole is able to fly. But Christians are as eagles which mount upward. Seeing then the heart of man by nature is fixed to the earth, and of itself is no more able to rise therefrom than a stone which is fixed to the ground, till God raises it by his power, word, and workmen; it should be our principal petition to the Lord that it would please him to draw us, that we might run after him; that he would exalt and lift up our hearts to heaven, that they may not lie still in the puddle of this earth. Archibald Symson.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. A godly man prays as a builder builds. Now a builder first layeth a foundation, and because he cannot finish in one day, he comes the second day, and finds the frame standing that he made the first day, and then he adds a second day's work; and then he comes a third day and finds his two former day's work standing; then he proceeds to a third day's work, and makes walls to it, and so he goes on till his building be finished. So prayer is the building of the soul till it reach up to heaven; therefore a godly heart prays, and reacheth higher and higher in prayer, till at last his prayers reach up to God. William Fenner.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul: unto thee in the fulness of thy merits, unto thee in the riches of thy grace; unto thee in the embraces of thy love and comforts of thy Spirit; unto thee, that thy thorns may be my crown, thy blood my balsam, thy curse my blessing, thy death my life, thy cross my triumph. Thus is my "life hid with Christ in God; "and if so, then where should be my soul, but where is my life? And, therefore, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. ...O make good thy name of Lord unto me; as Lord, rebuke Satan and restrain all earthly and carnal affections, that they do not once dare to whisper a temptation to my soul, a distraction to my thoughts, whilst I am in communion with thee, in prayer at thy holy ordinance. Do thou as Lord, rule me by thy grace, govern me by thy Spirit, defend me by thy power, and crown me with thy salvation. Thou, Lord, the preserver of heaven and earth, "thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Ps 145:16. O open now thine hand, thy bosom, thy bounty, thy love, and satisfy the desires of my longing soul, which I here "lift up unto thee." Robert Mossom, 1657.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people's minds to pray, by prefacing, Sursum corda, lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, A prayer without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul. And yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith onea brainless head and a soulless body: "This people draw nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Isa 29:13. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer, as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downwards, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us therefore "lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us; "and pray to God to draw us up to himself, as the lodestone doth the iron. John Trapp.

Ver. 1. Unto thee, I lift up my soul. This follows by a natural consequence after the sublime appeal in the foregoing Psalm to the gates of heaven to lift up their heads to receive Christ, the Lord of hosts and the King of glory, ascending into heaven. As the Collect for Ascension day expresses it, "Grant O Lord, that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also, in heart and mind thither ascend; "and for the Sunday after Ascension, "O God, who hast exalted thine only Son with great triumph to thy kingdom in heaven, send thy Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same place, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before." Christopher Wordsworth, in loc.

Ver. 1. I lift up my soul, alluding to the sacrifices, which were wont to be lifted up. Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending. La 3:44. When you meet with such expressions in the Old Testament concerning prayer, you must still understand them to be allusions to the sacrifices, because the sacrifices were lifted up and did ascend. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 1. My soul. But how shall I call it mine, seeing it is thine, thine by purchase, thine, having bought it with thy blood? Yea, is it not thy spouse, whom thou hast wedded to thyself by the Spirit through faith? And is not this holy sacrament the marriage feast? If so, sure then, my Jesus, I was lost in myself, till found in thee; and therefore my soul is now, and not till now, truly mine, in being wholly thine; so that I can say with confidence, "I lift up my soul unto thee." Robert Mossom.

Ver. 1. Heavenly machinery for uplifting an earthbound soul.

Ver 1. Genuine devotion described and commended.

A Godly and Fruitful Exposition on the Twenty-fifth Psalme, the second of the Penitentials; (in "A Sacred Septenarie.") By ARCHIBALD SYMSON. 1638. (See page 74.)

The Preacher's Tripartie, in Three Books. The First, to raise Devotion in Divine Meditations upon Psalm XXV. By R. MOSSOM, Preacher of God's Word, late at St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf, London, 1657. Folio.

Six Sermons in "Expository Discourses, "by the late Rev. WILLIAM RICHARDSON, Subchanter of York Cathedral. 1825.

Psalms 25:2*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Psa 25:1-3. Unto thee do I lift up my soul — That is, I direct my prayers to thee with hope of a gracious answer. Let me not be ashamed — That is, disappointed of my hope, which will be reproachful to me, and not without reflection upon thee, of whose power and faithfulness I have made my boast. Let none that wait on thee be ashamed — With me and for me: for if I be frustrated, those that trust in thee will be discouraged, and upbraided with my example. Let them be ashamed — Blast their wicked designs and hopes, who transgress — Hebrew, הבגדים, ha-bogedim, who prevaricate, or deal perfidiously, namely, with me, violating their faith given to me; without a cause — Without any provocation of mine, or without any sufficient reason. Or, by transgressing without a cause; or vainly, or rashly, as ריקם, reikam, signifies; he may mean, 1st, Transgressing upon no provocation; and may intend to describe those that revolt from God and their duty, without any occasion given them, not being able to pretend that they have found any iniquity in God, or that in any thing he hath wearied them. The weaker the temptation is, by which men are induced to sin, the stronger the corruption is by which they are drawn thereto. Those are the worst sinners that sin for sinning’s sake: or, 2d, To no purpose: they know their attempts against God, and his cause and people, are fruitless, and therefore they will soon be ashamed of them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the second of the 'acrostic' or 'alphabetic' Pss. (cp. 9, 10). As it now stands there are a few irregularities in the arrangement, some of which appear again in Psalms 34. The closing v. suggests the circumstances of the exile, but it is probably an addition, as the last letter of the alphabet is reached in Psa_25:21. The rest of the Ps. contains nothing to indicate its date or authorship, and its value is independent of any view that may be taken as to these. Some have supposed that the writer speaks in the name of the nation, but much of the Ps. has a distinctly personal character. It falls into three parts—a humble prayer for defence, instruction, and forgiveness (Psa_25:1-7); a meditation on the character and ways of God (Psa_25:8-14); and a further prayer for deliverance from trouble (Psa_25:15-21).

1. Aspiration reveals and determines character. The man who lifts up his soul to God stands contrasted with him who lifts up his soul to vanity (Psa_24:4).

2. I trust in thee] RV 'in thee have I trusted.'

5. Lead (RV 'guide ') me in thy truth] i.e. 'in thy faithfulness.'

6, 7. Note the threefold use of remember. God's remembrance is sought, not for the Psalmist's sins, but for His own changeless character of grace, and, in accordance with that character, for the Psalmist himself. It has been suggested that the writer, living late in Israel's history, colours his personal prayer with the thought of the nation's early sins and of God's past deliverances.

7. Mercy] RV 'lovingkindness,' as in Psa_25:6. So in Psa_25:10.

8. Sinners] a truly evangelic thought. God's grace is not for those who have deserved it alone, but for all who seek it in penitence.

9. In judgment] in the principles of practical righteousness.

10. Covenant.. testimonies] God's law is viewed in the one case as the basis of His gracious contract with Israel, and in the other as a witness to His own character.

11. For thy name's sake.. pardon] Forgiveness is asked because it is God's nature to forgive. For it is great] The plea appears strange, but it is the utterance of deep penitence, combined with strong faith in the forgiving grace which is characteristic of God.

12. Teach in the way that he shall choose] God's instruction moulds the will, and directs it to right decisions and resolves.

13. Earth] RV 'land.' The promise of temporal blessing to the good man and his posterity is in harmony with the general thought of the OT.

14. Secret] RM 'counsel' or 'friendship'; confidential fellowship. The earthly blessing is crowned with a spiritual one.

15. The net] the entanglements and perplexities of trouble and sin.

21. There is a seeming inconsistency between the plea of integrity and uprightness and the confessions of sin in Psa_25:7, Psa_25:11. But what the Psalmist claims is not perfection, but a sincere love of goodness, and the humble dependence on God expressed in the words I wait on thee.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

INTRODUCTION

“David is pictured in this psalm as in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great transgression, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here; so that we see the very heart of ‘the man after God’s own heart.’ It is evidently a composition of David’s later days, for he mentions the sins of his youth, and, from its painful references to the craft and cruelty of his many foes, it will not be too speculative a theory to refer it to the period when Absalom was heading the great rebellion against him. This has been styled the second of the seven penitential psalms. It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.”—Spurgeon. “The psalm hardly admits of formal division. It is a prayer for instruction and forgiveness. Its prevailing thought is that God is the teacher of the afflicted and the guide of the erring: and this is constantly repeated, either in the way of statement or of prayer.”—Perowne.

INVARIABLE TOPICS FOR PRAYER

(Psa_25:1-7.)

I. That all prayer should be addressed to Jehovah. “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul” Psa_25:1. Do I bear my soul. The bearing of the soul to the Lord signifies the longing of the heart after Him. When in distress, the psalmist does not, like the ungodly, draw his soul at one time in this direction, and at another time in that; does not seek to catch now at this, now at that ignis fatuus of human help; but goes straight with all his desire to God, and rests in His protection.”—Hengstenberg. The call to devotion in the early church was sursum corda, up with your hearts. Some lift up their hearts to vanity, and idolise a creation of man, or the soulless and unresponsive forces of Nature, or an assumptious sacerdotal subordinate. But the only legitimate object of worship, to whom prayer can be acceptably offered, is God. “A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task, since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downwards, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us therefore ‘lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and pray to God to draw us up to Himself, as the loadstone doth the iron,”—Trapp.

II. That prayer should be offered that our enemies may have no ground to taunt us with the failure of our trust in God. “O my God, I trust in Thee; let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me” (Psa_25:2). The enemies of religion cannot understand the principle of faith, which fastens on the unseen, and confidently looks for the promised good. They have faith in nothing but the demonstrable, and frequently taunt the believer with fanaticism, and prophesy the utter failure of his expectations from God. In a sensitive mind this is hard to bear, and the more so, that the slightest suspicion is cast on the veracity and faithfulness of God. The best of men have enemies: the determination to do the right is quite enough to rouse the opposition of some men; and the discomforture of God’s people would occasion them the most malicious joy.

1. The sincere believer will not suffer failure. “None that wait on Thee shall be ashamed” (Psa_25:3). The words emphatically express an eternal and unchanging truth. When by prayer we come near to God, by faith we rest upon Him: and to him who prays and believes all things are possible. He can never be put to confusion who humbly seeks Divine guidance; and the faith whose grapnels are firmly fixed in the Divine Righteousness can never be overturned. Trouble widens our sympathies. Though the psalmist had burden enough of his own, he felt for others in similar circumstances, and rejoiced in the assurance of their triumph.

2. Failure is the fate of the perfidious. “Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause” (Psa_25:3). They shall be ashamed who are faithless without cause. He who transgresses without cause is one who acts treacherously towards God and man. All who trust in their own craftiness and act with wilful dishonesty and perfidiousness shall be disappointed of what they grasped at, and be covered with everlasting shame. Shame shall recoil upon the shameless perpetrator of sin—the disloyal and faithless transgressor.

III. That prayer should be offered for Divine guidance.

1. In the ways of God. “Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths.” The ways of God are often dark, mysterious, circuitous, and painful to walk in, but they are safe and lead to peace and happiness. The pride and presumption of man often impel him to shape out a way for himself; and it often terminates in disaster and ruin. (Pro_14:12.) The ways of God are always better than our own: it should be our continual anxiety to become acquainted with, and walk in, them. “The ways and stairs of God are known to no creature so well as to Himself; therefore He can give us the best instruction in them. It is not enough to be taught of men; we must go to school to God—that is, resign ourselves obediently to the guidance and training of His Holy Spirit”—Starke.

2. In the truth of God. “Lead me in Thy truth and teach me; for Thou art the God of my salvation” (Psa_25:5). The truth specially desired is that which reveals salvation. The whole plan of redemption, from its first dim promise to its fullest development in later times, is an imposing manifestation of the truthfulness of Jehovah. The way to know truth is to feel it: experience is a test impossible to ignore. All moral precepts are based on Divine truths. To be well versed in the truth of God, and to experience its power in the government of life, will save us from the fate of the faithless ones who are put to shame.

3. Prayer must be persistent. “On Thee do I wait all the day.” The more we realise our dependence and need, the more tenaciously do we cling to God. Many rich blessings have been lost for want of perseverance in prayer. Not to persevere in prayer is to risk the loss of all we ever gained. Patience is an important element of success. “To patient faith the prize is sure.”

IV. That prayer should be offered for Divine mercy.

1. Divine mercy is unfailing. “Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old” (Psa_25:6). They are from eternity. Mercy has ever been an attribute of Jehovah; and He cannot be unlike Himself: He cannot deny His character. If He were at any time to cease revealing Himself to man as a God of mercy, it would be tantamount to His proving untrue to Himself. The mercies and love of God are indeed infinite and everlasting; but it needs infinite mercy and everlasting love to pardon our uncounted sins. The greatest blessings of life are, like mercy, very ancient—as light, air, water, and earth fruits. “Divine love is an eternal fountain that never leaves off running while a vessel is empty or capable of holding more. It stands open to all comers: therefore come; and if you have not sufficient of your own, go and borrow vessels, empty vessels not a few; pay your debts out of it, and live on the rest (2Ki_4:7) to eternity.”—Elisha Coles (1678).

2. Divine mercy is invoked for the pardon of sin, “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Thy mercy remember Thou me, for Thy goodness’ sake, O Lord” (Psa_25:7). How many would like to return to the happy time of youth! There is an exquisite pathos in those lines of Goethe:—

“Give me, oh! give me back the days of youth,

Poor, yet how rich!—my glad inheritance,

The inextinguishable love of truth,

While life’s realities were all romance.

Give me, oh! give youth’s passions unconfined,

The rush of joy that felt almost like pain,

Its hate, its love, its own tumultuous mind;

Give me my youth again!”

But it may not, it cannot be. We are young but once. And oh! how much of that past youth-time would we like to live over again! How many of its wild, mad, sinful actions could we wish undone! How many are there of the sins of our younger days we can ourselves remember; and, alas! how many more which are now unknown to ourselves, and forgotten by all but God! “The world winks at the sins of young men; and yet they are none so little after all: the bones of our youthful feastings at Satan’s table will stick painfully in our throats when we are old men. He who presumes upon his youth is poisoning his old age. How large a tear may wet this page as some of us reflect upon the past!”—Spurgeon. The recollection of our transgressions shows the need of mercy, and prompts the prayer for it. If we forget our sins, we shall never appreciate the grace which provides for their removal. The cry of the penitent should be—O Lord, remember not my sins, but remember me!

LESSONS:—

1. A sinful soul is never in want of a topic for prayer.

2. The soul finds its true safety by trusting in God.

3. To hear and answer prayer are both acts of Divine mercy.

THE HIDDEN WAYS OF GOD MADE PLAIN

(Psa_25:8-15.)

I. That the character of God is a guarantee of infallible direction. “Good and upright is the Lord. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” (Psa_25:8; Psa_25:10). Because God is good, therefore He will give His children His Spirit for their direction; and because He is upright, it must of necessity be a good and most certain one.—Diodati. We value promises of help according to the character of the person who makes them. All the promises of God are based on His infinite perfections. There can never be any real disagreement between the nature and the actions of Jehovah: His paths, like Himself, are mercy and truth. “Paths signify the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of waggons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does He show them mercy, and so frequently does He fulfil His truth, that His paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God’s mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them.”—Clarke. “These paths—the ways in which He leads His people—are mercy (loving-kindness), for the salvation of men is the end thereof; and truth, for they give proof at every step of the certainty of His promises. Grace is their Alpha and truth their Omega.”—Delitzsch. As coals feed the fire, so the remembrance of the truths of our faith should keep alive the flame of our prayers.

II. The ways of God are made known to the morally needy. These are alluded to under varied phases of character.

1. Sinners. “Therefore will He teach sinners in the way” (Psa_25:8)—those who have erred and strayed from the way—those whose sins have assumed gigantic proportions. “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great” (Psa_25:11). Nothing is so blinding and misleading as sin, and it is never so dangerously deceptive as when it wears the semblance of virtue. Naturalists tell us that certain birds and insects have the curious faculty of assuming a likeness to the vegetation among which they sport themselves—that the South American heron can assume a perpendicular position, so as to look exactly like the reeds of its native district, that the leaf-butterfly of Sumatra is readily mistaken for one of the leaves among which it alights, and that the walking-stick insect of New Zealand can closely resemble an upright twig. So sin has the dangerous power of assuming a tone and attitude of certain virtues. But the Divine eye detects the fallacy, and the Divine hand graciously guides into the right way.

2. The humble. “The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way” (Psa_25:9). Those who are afflicted and distressed about sin, who desire to be delivered from it and led in the right way. The proud despise instruction, and are left to the hardness of their hearts. “Pride and auger have no place in the school of Christ. The Master Himself is ‘meek and lowly in heart;’ much more, surely, ought the scholars to be so. He who hath no sense of his ignorance can have no desire or capability of knowledge, human or Divine.”—G. Horne.

3. The perplexed. “For He shall pluck my feet out of the net” (Psa_25:15). A time comes in the mental history of most when the mind is harassed with doubts, and is like a restless, fluttering bird caught in the snare of the fowler. Or, it may be, we are suddenly overtaken with calamity and plunged into the darkness of despair. At these times God comes to our rescue, allays our fears, and lifts us out of our entanglements. The greatest distresses of life are only temporary.

“I stoop

Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud.

It is but for a time: I press God’s lamp

Close to my breast: its splendours, soon or late,

Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge ere long.”

—BROWNING.

III. That the deeper revelations of God are reserved for the morally good.

1. For the obedient. “Unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies” (Psa_25:10). Obedience is the organ of spiritual enlightenment (Joh_7:17). The ways and commandments of God cannot be fairly and accurately judged as simply apprehended by the understanding. To see their Godlike beauty and feel their holiest force, they must be obeyed. “Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.”

2. For the God-fearing. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Psa_25:14). The great secret of all truth is hid in God. He is Himself the embodiment and ultimate end of truth, and He alone can impart it, and He will impart it only to them who fear Him. “What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose” (Psa_25:12). The God-fearing are lowered in the depths of the heavenly mysteries, and discover the unsearchable. “Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can unriddle celestial enigmas; they are initiated into the fellowship of the skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their fellows. He who does not know the meaning of this verse (Psa_25:14), will never learn it from a commentary: let him look to the cross, for the secret lies there.”—Spurgeon.

3. For the earnest and persevering inquirer. “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord” (Psa_25:15). The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth, wandering over a thousand different objects, but fastening on none, and learning nothing. But the humble and patient inquirer carefully investigates the minutest phenomena that promises to lead to the interpretation of truth, and conduct the mind up to the great source of truth. There are some things that need no inquiry about; they are vile on the face of them; and every year of our lives we grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false. The eye that turns its inquiring gaze towards God will make the grandest discoveries and see the most entrancing visions. The true attitude of humble and reverential confidence consists in directing the eyes of the soul “ever toward the Lord.”

IV. That the revelation of the hidden ways of God is morally satisfying. “His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth” (Psa_25:13). The soul of the pious shall pitch her tent and lodge in goodness as in a fruitful land,—shall reach her home and possess it for ever. Moses made the promise “to possess the land” (to inherit the earth) in a literal sense to his people (Deu_4:22; Deu_40:5, Deu_36:6; Deu_36:18); but since his days it has been used to denote perfect peace, as is apparent from Pro_2:21; Psa_37:8-9.—Tholuck. The posterity of the good are blessed, though the inheritance they possess as the result of many prayers is often abused. Parents should not only pray for but with their children; and it will be strange indeed if those prayers do not bear gracious fruit in the future career of their offspring. There is nothing so satisfying to the soul as a sight of God.

LESSONS:—

1. Trust in God when life is involved in darkness and mystery.

2. God only can reveal the secret of happiness.

3. A moral fitness is necessary to understand the hidden ways of God.

TROUBLE AND THE WAY OUT OF IT

(Psa_25:16-22.)

I. That sin is the prolific source of all trouble.

1. A sense of personal sin is an intensified form of trouble (Psa_25:16-18). The language of these three verses is pathetically expressive of conscious sin. “Have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: look upon mine affliction and my pain.” What words can more graphically depict the sorrow, the loneliness, the anguish, the utter wretchedness of a soul pressed down under the burden of its sins! There is an inseparable connection between sin and sorrow; and yet how slow men are to see it. Only the soul smitten with a genuine penitence understands the true nature of sin, and the enormous evils of which it is the cause. Often when the spirit is most deeply troubled, when the pain is sharpest, when our self-reproach is bitterest,—then God is nearest to strengthen and deliver. Our greatest blessings have sprung out of the vortex of our greatest troubles.

2. Trouble is increased by the number and ferocity of our enemies. “Consider mine enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with a cruel hatred” (Psa_25:19). The enemies of a good man multiply with his misfortunes, and the more helpless he is, the more furiously they assail him. “No hate so cruel as that which is unreasonable and unjust. A man can forgive one who has injured him, but one whom he has injured he hates implacably.” The madness of cruelty raves the more violently when it feels its impotency to inflict all the injury it designs.

II. That trouble shall not be permitted to overwhelm the good. “Oh, keep my soul and deliver me: let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in Thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on Thee” (Psa_25:20-21). In this world of contradictions and suffering, the best of men are not free from trouble; but they have the assurance of help which shall render them invincible and exultant in the fiercest trial. Their God-given virtues form an impassable cordon around them, and their faith in the unseen Protector constitutes an all-encompassing shield. The presence of Christ in trouble banishes fear. Alone, Dante feared to enter the dismal Inferno; but with Virgil, the great and good, to guide his steps and support his hand, he descended fearlessly into the abode of woe. So, relying on our own strength, we enter the valley of darkness, and, beset with fears, we find it the valley of sorrow and of death. But, trusting the Almighty arm, our dismay vanishes; we see it to be only the valley of the shadow, and even the shadow He has turned for us into the morning. Our trust is founded on the certainty of God’s righteousness; and though encompassed with floods and beaten with storms, it stands, for it is founded on a rock. There is ever a shelter for us in God, and our souls are safe in His hands.

III. That prayer to God is the infallible method of deliverance from the greatest trouble (Psa_25:22). Personal trouble deepens and widens our sympathy for others. Observe, the cry is not simply, “Oh, keep my soul, and deliver me” (Psa_25:20); but the prayer takes a more generous and comprehensive sweep, “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles” (Psa_25:22). “If Thou wilt not pity and help me, yet spare Thy people who suffer for my sake and in my sufferings.”—M.Pool. They who have thus struggled with their own doubts and sins, and by God’s grace have conquered them, must ever feel they have an interest in the conflicts of the church militant. They who pray for themselves are taught to pray for others: they, again and again, commend their suffering brethren of the true Israel to that Almighty Father and all-gracious God who has deigned to deliver them from all their troubles. True prayer is the precursor and lever of redeeming power.

LESSONS:—

1. The cure of sin is the cure of trouble.

2. The potency of prayer is never so thoroughly tested and triumphantly vindicated as in time of trouble.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psalms 25

A Psalm of David

1          Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

2     O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed,

Let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3     Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed:

Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4     Shew me thy ways, O Lord;

Teach me thy paths.

5     Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:

For thou art the God of my salvation;

On thee do I wait all the day.

6     Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses;

For they have been ever of old.

7     Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;

According to thy mercy remember thou me,

For thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.

8     Good and upright is the Lord:

Therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9     The meek will he guide in judgment:

And the meek will he teach his way.

10     All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth

Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11     For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity;

For it is great.

12     What man is he that feareth the Lord?

Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13     His soul shall dwell at ease;

And his seed shall inherit the earth.

14     The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;

And he will shew them his covenant.

15     Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord;

For he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16     Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me;

For I am desolate and afflicted.

17     The troubles of my heart are enlarged:

O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18     Look upon mine affliction and my pain;

And forgive all my sins.

19     Consider mine enemies; for they are many;

And they hate me with cruel hatred.

20     O keep my soul, and deliver me:

Let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

21     Let integrity and uprightness preserve me;

For I wait on thee.

22     Redeem Israel, O God,

Out of all his troubles.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Its Form and Contents.—This is one of the nine alphabetical Psalms, resembling in most respects Psalms 34.; for in both Psalms the strophe with ו is missing, both have an additional strophe with פ and resemble one another in thought and expression in corresponding strophes. It is uncertain whether some inaccuracies (the absence of the ק and the use of ר twice) are due to the author or the copyist, since they are easily obviated, as in Psa_25:2. There is not the least occasion for the supposition of a subsequent addition of a closing strophe (Rosenm.). The alphabetical form is regarded by many, without reason, as a subsequent refinement. There is nothing to favor this but the loose connection of the clauses. Yet there is not perceptible here a mere wreath of prayers, which have been gathered together by an alphabetical arrangement of current proverbs, but there is an advance in the different phases of the fundamental thought that God helps the pious. For the Psalmist turns to Jehovah in prayer (Psa_25:1), and bases his trust in God’s help against his enemies (Psa_25:2) on the general experience of the Divine treatment of those who trust in God and those who are faithless (Psa_25:3). Therefore he prays for instruction and guidance in the ways of Jehovah, the God of his salvation, in whom he trusts (Psa_25:4-5), and this mercy which has been shown to men from of old, he now implores (Psa_25:6), with confession of sin (Psa_25:7), and with an appeal to the nature of God, and His dealings, which have originated from His nature (Psa_25:8-9), with sinners and the wretched, as well as with those who observe His law (Psa_25:10). And he refers back to his personal needs (Psa_25:11), the satisfaction of which is confidently expected, since he has the necessary prerequisites and conditions (Psa_25:12-15). The importunate prayer for immediate help rises on this foundation in connection with all the motives previously adduced (Psa_25:16-21) and ends with the closing sigh for the deliverance of all the people from all their needs (Psa_25:22).—Even this turn of thought does not necessarily lead to a later period of composition. On the other hand the individual features are not concrete enough, to refer them directly to historical events in the life of David.—This Psalm has especial significance to the Church from the fact that the name of the 2d Sunday in Lent has originated from the Latin word which begins Psa_25:6 [Reminiscere Sunday], the name of the 3d Sunday from Psa_25:15 [Oculi]; and that Selnekker’s dying hymn, “Allein nach dir, Herr Jesu Christ.” has originated from Psa_25:1, and the whole Psalm has been given in Gerhardt’s hymn. “Nach dir, o Golt, verlanget mich.”

[Str. I. Psa_25:1. Unto Thee, Jehovah.—Perowne: “This is emphatic, not to any false god, or to any human deliverer. Similarly Psa_25:2; Psa_25:5.”—Do I lift up my soul.—Delitzsch: “In need of help and longing for salvation he lifts his soul, withdrawn from all earthly desires, to Jehovah; the God who alone can grant that which truly satisfies. His Ego, which has the soul in itself, gives to it the direction upward to Him, whom he names ‘my God’ [Psa_25:2], because he cleaves fast to Him and is united to Him in the confidence of faith.”

Psa_25:3. Yea, none that wait on Thee shall be ashamed.—Perowne: “The writer passes from the optative, with אַל (μή), Psa_25:2, to the future, with לֹא (ὄυ). He here expresses not so much a general truth as his own individual conviction, and includes tacitly himself in the number of those who thus hope. The Sept. is mistaken, in returning, in the second clause of the verse, to the optative [So A. V.]. For the sentiment, comp. Rom_5:5, ἡ δὲ ἐλπὶς ὀυ καταισχύναι.”—Delitzsch: “Hope is the eye of faith, which looks clearly and fixedly into the future.”—Ashamed shall be the traitors without cause.—Alexander: “The position of the verbs, at the end and the beginning of the successive clauses, give a peculiar turn to the sentence, which is lost in some translations.—Without cause qualifies the word immediately preceding, and describes the enemy not only as perfidious, but as acting so gratuitously and without provocation.”—C. A. B.]

[Str. II. Psa_25:4. Thy ways, Jehovah, make me to know.—Barnes: “The ‘ways’ of God are His methods of administering the affairs of the world; His dispensations; the rules which He has prescribed for Himself in the execution of His plans; the great laws by which He governs the universe.”

Psa_25:5. Lead me in Thy truth.—Alexander: “The obvious meaning of this verse, interpreted according to New Testament and modern usage, would be that of prayer for Divine instruction in religious truth or doctrine. But the usage of the Psalms, and the preceding context, are in favor of explaining truth to mean the veracity of God, or the faithful performance of His promises. See Psa_30:9; Psa_71:22; Psa_91:4. The teaching asked is then experimental teaching or the actual experience of God’s faithfulness.”—God of my salvation—Barnes: “The word salvation is not to be understood here in the sense in which it is now commonly used, as denoting deliverance from sin and future ruin, but in the more general sense of deliverance—deliverance from danger and death.”—C. A. B.]

[Str. III. Psa_25:6. For from everlasting are they.—Hupfeld: “The grace of God is often thus designated, e.g.Psa_100:5; Psa_103:17, especially in the refrain which has become a formula, ‘for His mercy endureth forever,’ Psalms 136, et al. The remembrance of this and appeal to this is especially appropriate in times of trouble, when ‘God hides His face’ and seems to have forgotten His suppliant.”

Psa_25:7. The sins of my youth and my transgressions.—Hupfeld: “Sins of youth, because youth, as the time of hot sensuousness and passion, is especially inclined to such errors as those designated by חטּאות, whilst the פשׁעים are more appropriate to the cold and reflective age of manhood.” “The mention of both together, that is, the sins of youth and manhood, shows that in praying for forgiveness he thinks not only of the more recent sins, but is conscious of having heaped sin upon sin from the earliest times, and he bows under this burden (Calvin).”—C. A. B.]

[Str. IV. Psa_25:9. He will guide the humble,etc.—Alexander: “The common version of ענוים, meek, is too restricted and descriptive of mere temper. The Hebrew word is the nearest equivalent to humble in its strong religious sense. The omission of the article may be explained as a poetic license, and the word translated the humble so as to include the whole class. But the intimate connection between this verse and the one before it makes it more natural to take ענוים as a description of the sinners mentioned in Psa_25:8, who are then of course to be regarded as penitent, believing sinners, i.e. as true converts.”—C. A. B.]

[Str. V. Psa_25:10. Grace and truth.—Delitzsch: “These paths are חֶסֶד, for the salvation of men is their end, and אֱמֶת, for they confirm at every step the reliability of His promises. But only those who were true and obedient to His covenant and testimonies, were partakers of such grace and truth. The name of Jehovah, which unfolds in grace and truth, is dear to the Psalmist.”—C. A. B.]

Str. VI. [Psa_25:12. The way that he should choose (A. V., shall choose.).—This is the rendering of Moll, Hupf., Perowne, et al., and is better. Luther, followed by Ewald, translates, “den beaten Weg.”

Psa_25:13. His soul shall dwell in good (A. V., at ease).—Perowne: “Literally, ‘to pass the night,’ but used in the more extended sense as in Psa_49:12; Psa_91:1; Pro_19:23.”—Alexander: “In good, not goodness, but good fortune or prosperity.”—His seed shall possess the land.—Alexander: “The verb translated shall possess, denotes specifically to inherit or possess as an inheritance, i.e. from generation to generation, in perpetual succession.—The land, to wit, the land of Canaan; and as this was the standing promise of the law, uttered even in the decalogue (Exo_20:12), it became a formula for all the blessings implicitly embraced in the promise of Canaan to the ancient Israel, and is so used even by our Lord Himself (Mat_5:5).”—C. A. B.]

Psa_25:14. The friendship of Jehovah.—The Hebrew word סוֹד, sôd, which is very obscure in its etymology, has this meaning Pro_3:22; Job_29:4. [So Alexander and Barnes. Hupfeld renders friendship, but gives secret in the margin.—C. A. B.]. Others, after Theodot., prefer the meaning, secret [A. V., so also Delitzsch and Perowne.29—C. A. B.], because in intimate association, Psa_55:14 sq., there is a free expression and sharing of secrets (Job_19:19). Symmach. renders it ὁμιλία; Aquil. ἀπόῥῥητον, after the meaning which became usual only afterwards; Sept. κραταίωμα (Vulg. firmamentum), confounding it with יְסוֹד

[Psa_25:15. My eyes ever towards Jehovah.—Hupfeld: “We must supply either נשׁאתי, I lift,Psa_123:1 (comp. Psa_121:1), or look, as Psa_33:18. It indicates looking out for help from God, whether in anxiety (comp. Psa_121:1), or, as here, confidently=with hope and trust in Him.”—From the net.—Alexander: “The figure of a net is a favorite one for dangers arising from the craft and spite of enemies.” Vid.Psa_9:15; Psa_10:9.—C. A. B.]

Str. VIII. Psa_25:17. Distresses have extended themselves over my heart.—Since “to enlarge one’s self,” likewise=to add to one’s extent, it is unnecessary to depart from the interpretation which prevailed among all ancient interpreters, of the extending of distresses, which is likewise indicated by the vowel points. Most recent interpreters, however, change the reading by connecting the וּ with the following word, and thus by changing the vowel points get the imperative form harchibh. Thus they gain a complete parallelism with the following member of the verse.30

[Str. IX. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.—Delitzsch: “That piety which fills the whole man and not that which divides his heart or is hypocritical, is called תֹּם, and that honesty which goes after the Divine will, without going astray or in crooked ways, is called ישֶׁר—these two fundamental virtues (comp. Job_1:1) he wishes to be the guardians of his way, which is dangerous, not only on account of external enemies, but likewise on account of his own sinfulness: they are not to let him go out of their sight, that he may not withdraw himself from them (comp. Psa_40:12; Pro_20:28). He can claim this for himself, because the object of his hope is God, from whom תם and ישׁרֹ go forth as good angels.”—C. A. B.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Where the soul is really directed towards God, it is full of seeking for help and longing for salvation. In this is the warrant of deliverance, as the conditions of salvation and the certainty of answer to prayer, consist in trust in God, which does not ask that God should make this special case an exception, but rather relies upon the sureness and faithfulness of God, which are manifested and proved in His government, which is always the same, in the deliverance of the pious, and the punishment of the faithless, who break the covenant without cause.

2. It is necessary, on this account, to walk in the ways of God and pray for enlightenment and guidance, because His ways are grace and truth (Psa_25:10; comp. Psa_26:3; Psa_86:11; Joh_1:17). Accordingly they cannot be known or found without God, neither can any one walk in them or remain in them without Him. Yet those who hope continually and uninterruptedly in God may expect such gracious help from the God of salvation.

3. However, we must not only pray for assisting grace, but likewise for pardoning mercy. For we may say on the one hand: “Because our sins set up a partition between us and God, so that He does not hear our wishes, or stretch forth His hand to help us, David now takes this hindrance away; he confesses that he cannot share in the grace of God except by having his sins blotted out” (Calvin). On the other hand, the forgiveness of sins is that declaration of Divine grace by which the mercy of God has from the earliest times been historically made known to sinners as proper to the being of God, and which as the expression of His favor and love accomplishes the salvation of men. This the Psalmist claims for himself, on this account, partly by appealing to the remembrance of God; partly by referring to his own personal previous transgressions, particularly to the sins of his youth; for “where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and blessedness” (Luther); and “if our sins are many, His grace is much more.”

4. Now as sure as the safe direction of sinners and guidance in the right not only come from God, but likewise, as based upon the Being of God, give expression to the excellence of His Being; so, moreover, it is just as sure that it is necessary that there should be a corresponding behaviour on the part of those who would attain the salvation to which grace points and leads, and would experience in themselves the truth, that is, the reliability of the Divine declarations and actions, at every step of the way. It is not the greatness and grievousness of the sins that in themselves exclude from salvation, but the lack of forgiveness of sins when it is neither sought nor found. Therefore we must hold fast to the covenant and testimonies of God. For though they disclose the misery of man, yet they likewise unveil the depths of the Divine mercy, reveal the name of God, whose ways are grace and truth, and offer the means of atonement and forgiveness to those who would use them. Therefore, “this is our Theology, which we pray in the Lord’s prayer; forgive us our debts in order that we may know that we live under grace alone. Grace, moreover, not only takes away sins, but likewise endures them and bears them” (Luther).

5. But all this is said not that we may sin wantonly, but that we may not despair with the knowledge of the greatness and grievousness of our sins, in the feeling of our weakness and our misery, under the chastisements and sufferings which arise from our guilt. It is that we may be comforted by the grace of God, invoke the mercies of the Lord, and lay hold of and use the means of salvation offered in the gracious covenant, in order that we may walk in the right ways pointed out to us. Thus we are to attain that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of all wisdom, and which finally leads to the friendship of Jehovah and to that love which is the fulfilment of the law (Rom_13:10; comp. Eccl. 13:12). This brings blessings to our own persons and to our posterity (Deu_5:3; Deu_11:21).

6. Thus the soul of the pious may at times be overwhelmed with anxiety of heart as with a flood and may feel itself solitary and wretched, especially when the snares in which he has become entangled are about to be drawn together as a net; yet he is never really forsaken and hopeless, so long as he can lift up his eyes to the Lord and bring before God in prayer and supplication the condition of his heart and take refuge against the assaults of all his enemies in faith in the Almighty as His Helper. Oculi mei ad te, oculs ergo tui vicissim ad me; respice in me, ut suspicio in te (Gassiodor). There is an interchange between trust and faithfulness, as between uprightness and salvation.

7. Within the covenant of grace the individual feels not only in communion and intercourse with God, but likewise united as a member of the people of the covenant. From his personal needs his individual feeling of pain is enlarged so that he sympathizes with the troubles of the congregation, and from this arises comprehensive love, in like trust in the God of the community and often indeed at the same time in supplication that the general as well as the particular distress may be removed. The prayer has accordingly become intercession, and remains, likewise in this respect, directed to the God of the covenant. It may address Him, moreover, with the universal name of God (Elohim), because it has to do with the Divine help as such.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

We can never do better than: 1) trust the faithfulness of God; 2) look to God’s truth; 3) build on God’s grace.—It is good in trouble to take refuge with God; but it is not enough to implore deliverance from earthly need, we must likewise pray for forgiveness of sins, for the cause of all misery is in sin.—To lift up the soul to God is to begin the lifting of the entire man out of all need.—He who would obtain salvation must walk in the ways of God, but he needs for this Divine instruction and guidance; both he will gain by praying for them as a needy suppliant.—However tar back we may look, we find human sin and Divine mercy; and it is necessary and good for us to be reminded of both in our misery, but likewise to think of this, that God’s mercy extends still farther back and springs from the perfect Being of God.—How it will fare with us, depends finally upon the ways in which we walk.—Those who fear God obtain the friendship of God and an abiding blessing for themselves and their posterity.—There are three things which are most oppressive and often prepare great anxiety of heart: 1) many and unrighteous enemies; 2) many and grievous sins; 3) many and well-deserved troubles. Against this anxiety there is, however, a threefold remedy: 1) trust in the assistance of the Almighty God; 2) the comfort of forgiveness of sins by God’s grace; 3) the prayer for redemption by the God of salvation.—Grace and truth on the part of God, bad and right on the part of men, this is the best meeting, the most powerful blessing, and the surest preserving.—He who would fare well let him remain: 1) walking in the ways of God; 2) holding to the law and testimonies of God; 3) trusting in the name of God.—Let us not forget in our particular troubles the general need, but rather hold in close connection our own personal salvation with the welfare of our people and the congregation of God, and by prayer and intercession bear witness to the communion in which God has placed us, strengthen and enlarge it.—God is the best treasure and the best protection.

Starke: The true lifting of the heart to God is the true worship of God in the spirit and the chief power of the life of true faith.—True living hope in God is the sure and only ground of true consolation, by which the spirit rests in God and His promises as a ship at anchor.—The ways and stairs of God are known to no creature so well as to Himself; therefore He can give us the best instruction in them.—It is not enough to be taught of men, we must go to school to God, that is, resign ourselves obediently to the guidance and training of the Holy Spirit.—God would justify sinners, but likewise sanctify them.—God will not lead the strong, who regard themselves as able, but the weak and miserable, who recognize their weakness and inability.—All true penitents regard their sins as great; and all believers regard the name of the Lord, that is, His grace, as still greater.—He who will not fear the Lord, cannot enjoy His gracious guidance in the blessed way.—The blessing of a believer does not die with him, but rests certainly on his posterity, provided that they follow his faith.—The cross has this advantage among others, that we are thereby more occupied with God.—The snares which Satan and the world put about the Christian are innumerable, and, without the assistance of God, unavoidable; therefore it is necessary to watch and pray.—The communion of saints demands that we always include in our prayers the affairs of all the children of God.

Luther: If we forget our sins, grace will be little thought of by us (1Pe_1:9). Moreover, we do not thank God if we forget our sins. Moreover, if we do not thank God, then we feel safe, and are bold to commit grievous sins and blasphemies.—Osiander: The impenitent cannot comfort themselves with Divine help, but the penitent are never to despair of His grace.—The cross and trouble are very good to induce us to leave off sin and lead an honorable life.—It is simple paternal faithfulness, what God does with us poor sinners, although at times it has a different appearance to our mind.—Selnekker: The lamentation of the saints is, half a saint and entirely a sinner. There is now no other counsel than to own and confess our sins and pray for their forgiveness; we are and live under grace.—Renschel: Confess your guilt; trust in God’s mercy; wait with patience; hold fast to the Word, the refuge of the soul; pray always.—Frisch: The praying Psalmist, 1) testifies his faith, a) by longing after God, b) by trust in God; 2) he seeks God’s grace, a) to govern him, b) to forgive him; 3) he praises a) God’s goodness, and b) the welfare of the pious; 4) he implores help, a) for himself, b) for the whole Church.—Herberger: The deeper the source of prayer within the heart, the stronger is its impulse upwards through the clouds of heaven.—If God is your God, then all that God is is yours, His grace, His help, His heaven; therefore you may be glad.—Two kinds of ways belong to Christianity: 1) the thankful way of life and virtue, 2) the right stairway of faith and heaven.—Von Gerlach: Grace and truth are the two stars, which David had constantly in view in his walk.—Tholuck: As fire must be kept up by coals, so the flames of our prayers need constant invigoration by keeping before us the universal truths of our religion, in which we believe.—The way of the fear of God is the best of all ways; by it the soul reaches its true home and takes possession of it forever.—Umbreit: God teaches sinners His way by righteousness and goodness. Righteousness must punish them in order to make known the wickedness of their way; goodness leads them back in contrition and penitence to that which they have renounced in their own wicked wills.—Baihinger: Salvation and happiness from Jehovah are the inseparable companions of the fear of God.—Taube: The ways of God are of two kinds: the one in which He goes to us and with us; and the one in which we must go to Him.—The true desire after God is when His glory draws and your need drives you to Him.

[Matth. Henry: Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God; God must be eyed, and the soul employed; sursumcorda,—“up with your hearts,” was anciently used as a call to devotion.—Those are the worst transgressors that sin for sinning’s sake.—If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with a resolution to do it, we need not question, but that God will direct us in it.—It is God’s goodness and not ours, His mercy and not our own merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin, and all the good we stand in need of.—The devil leads men blindfold to hell; but God enlightens men’s eyes, sets things before them in a true light, and so leads them to heaven.—They that receive the truth in the love of it, and experience the power of it, best understand the mystery of it.—Sincerity will be our best security in the worst of times.—Integrity and uprightness will be a man’s preservation more than the wealth and honor of the world can be.—In heaven, and in heaven only, will God’s Israel be perfectly redeemed from all troubles.—Barnes: It is always true that we are dependent on God for everything; it is not true that we always feel this.—Religion is not selfish. The mind under the influence of true piety, however intensely it may feel its own trouble, and however earnestly it may pray for deliverance, is not forgetful of the troubles of others; and prayers for their comfort and deliverance are freely mingled with those which the afflicted children of God offer for themselves.—Spurgeon: It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.—Faith is the cable which binds our boat to the shore, and by pulling at it we draw ourselves to the land; faith unites us to God, and then draws us near to Him. As long as the anchor of faith holds there is no fear in the worst tempest; if that should fail us there would be no hope left.—Suffering enlarges the heart by creating the power to sympathize.—We ought to be grateful for occasional griefs, if they preserve us from chronic hard-heartedness; for of all afflictions, an unkind heart is the worst, it is a plague to its possessor, and a torment to those around him.—If the Lord will only do unto us in the future as in the past, we shall be well content. We seek no change in the Divine action, we only crave that the river of grace may never cease to flow.—Proud of their own wisdom, fools will not learn, and therefore miss their road to heaven, but lowly hearts sit at Jesus’ feet, and find the gate of glory. Blessed teacher! Favored scholar! Divine lesson! My soul, be thou familiar with the whole.—Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.—We all wish to choose our way; but what a mercy is it when the Lord directs that choice, and makes free-will to be good-will! If we make our will God’s will, God will let us have our will.—Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their fellows.—Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace-taught heart alone feels it.—C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

[29][Perowne: “As God said, Gen_18:17, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?’ Or the word may mean ‘close and intimate communion,’ in which God makes Himself known to the soul. See Psa_55:14; Pro_3:22; Job_29:4. God alone possesses the truth, for He is the truth, and therefore He alone can impart it, and He impart, it only to them that fear Him.” So Wordsworth: “He sits, as it were, as a guest and friend, and converses familiarly with them. Comp. Joh_14:23, If any man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him;’ and see Rev_3:20.”—C. A. B.]

[30][Perowne: “As the text now stands, we can only render ‘Distresses have enlarged my heart,’ i.e. have made room for themselves, as it were, that they might come in and fill it; or have rushed in like a flood of water, swelling the stream till it overflows its banks, and so spreads itself over a wider surface. Unless, indeed, we take the word in the same meaning as in Psa_119:32, where to enlarge the heart—to open it to instruction. But that sense is scarcely suitable here. Most modern editors read ה‏רחיב וּממצוקתּי (imperat.). The rendering then is: ‘My heart is troubled (i.e. is nothing but troubles, is full of troubles), O set it at liberty! And out of my distresses,’ etc.”—C. A. B.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psalm 25-39

The fifteen Psalms which follow give the deep soul exercise of the godly. All fifteen, except the thirty-third, are marked as Psalms of David. Much of it expresses undoubtedly his own individual experience during the days of his suffering and at other occasions. Prophetically these Psalms give again the experience of the godly remnant of Israel in the time of trouble, preceding the coming of the King. We also can trace in these experiences much which concerns our Lord in His earthly life, when as the Holy One He lived that perfect life of obedience and trust, suffering too among the ungodly. But great caution is needed in the application of these Psalms to our Lord. Here we find expressions which could never be true of Him, who knew no sin. For instance some have applied Psa 38:7: “for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh” to the Lord Jesus, simply to sustain the theory that He carried literally our diseases in His body. This is positively wrong. His body was a holy body. Death had no claim on it nor could disease lay hold on that body. But many of these experiences are unquestionably the experiences of the Perfect and Righteous Man, the second Man, walking in the midst of sinners.

These fifteen Psalms are rich in spiritual food, yet it must always be remembered that strictly speaking it is not Christian experience, but the experience of Jews under the Law dispensation, and it needs spiritual discernment in using these utterances for ourselves with our heavenly calling and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. We give but one illustration of what we mean.

The much beloved thirty-seventh Psalm with its blessed promises which we as Christian believers have a right to enjoy and to claim contains the promise, “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psa 37:2). This is promised to the godly Jews who will inherit the earth. The Church does not inherit the earth, but hers is a heavenly possession. When our Lord in the kingly proclamation, the sermon on the mount, said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” He quoted from the thirty-seventh Psalm. This promise has therefore nothing whatever to do with the Church, but is a kingdom promise for the godly in Israel.

(It is deplorable that of late not a few of God’s people have been confused by “new light” concerning the kingdom. This theory claims that John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus never offered the promised kingdom to Israel, but that the kingdom of heaven is equivalent with the present dispensation.)

The scope of our work does not permit a detailed exposition of these fifteen beautiful Psalms. We must leave it to the reader to ponder over them prayerfully and to enjoy their blessed comfort, yet always “dividing the Word of Truth rightly.”

Psalm 25

Prayer for Mercy and Deliverance

1. Dependence on the Lord (Psa 25:1-7)

2. Confidence and assurance (Psa 25:8-14)

3. The Lord the refuge in trial and distress (Psa 25:15-22)

Psa 25:1-7. This is another alphabetical Psalm, though not perfect in structure as two letters of the Hebrew alphabet (v and k) are missing. This great prayer-psalm begins with the expressions of trust in Jehovah. The soul is uplifted and calm in His presence. Depending on the Eternal One, the soul knows that none that wait on Him shall be ashamed. David found this true in his own experience; so have generations upon generations of His people, and the godly of Israel in the future will make the same experience. They will turn to Him and inquire for His ways, His paths and His truth. Here are their prayers: “Show me--lead me--teach me--remember Thy mercies--remember not my sins--remember me.” And He will answer, yea, He will remember their sins and iniquities no more and remember them in mercy. Our prayer as Christian believers is also for guidance, but we know that our sins are put away, that He hath saved us.

Psa 25:8-14. Here we find expressions of confidence and assurance. He guides the humble in judgment, He teaches the humble His way, a truth which all His people may well remember. The godly in Israel, fearing the Lord, express their confidence that their seed shall inherit the earth and that “all the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” Yea, they know His secrets through His Word; this godly remnant will see and enjoy His covenant, the new covenant. (See Jer 31:31-34.)

Psa 25:15-20. They are in distress, a net has entangled their feet; they are desolate and afflicted, in affliction and pain, the burden of sin is upon them, enemies hate them with cruel hatred. They look away from self and from man and are turning their eyes only to the Lord. From Him their deliverance must come. “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” And that prayer will be answered.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psalms 25

THE recurrence of the phrase "lift up the soul" may have determined the place of this psalm next to Psalms 24. It is acrostic, but with irregularities. As the text now stands, the second, not the first, word in Psa_25:2 begins with Beth; Vav is omitted or represented in the "and teach me" of the He verse (Psa_25:5); Qoph is also omitted, and its place taken by a supernumerary Resh, which letter has thus two verses (Psa_25:18-19); and Psa_25:22 begins with Pe, and is outside the scheme of the psalm, both as regards alphabetic structure and subject. The same peculiarities of deficient Vav and superfluous Pe verses reappear in another acrostic psalm (Psalms 34), in which the initial word of the last verse is, as here, "redeem." Possibly the two psalms are connected.

The fetters of the acrostic structure forbid freedom and progress of thought, and almost compel repetition. It is fitted for meditative reiteration of favourite emotions or familiar axioms, and results in a loosely twined wreath rather than in a column with base, shaft, and capital. A slight trace of consecution of parts may be noticed in the division of the verses (excluding Psa_25:22) into three sevens, of which the first is prayer, the second meditation on the Divine character and the blessings secured by covenant to them who fear Him, and the third is bent round, wreath-like, to meet the first, and is again prayer. Such alternation of petition and contemplation is like the hearts beat of the religious life, now expanding in desire, now closing in possession. The psalm has no marks of occasion or period. It deals with the permanent elements in a devout mans relation to God.

The first prayer section embraces the three standing needs: protection, guidance, and forgiveness. With these are intertwined their pleas according to the logic of faith-The suppliants uplifted desires and Gods eternal tenderness and manifested mercy. The order of mention of the needs proceeds from without inwards, for protection from enemies is superficial as compared with illumination as to duty, and deeper than even that, as well as prior in order of time (and therefore last in order of enumeration), is pardon. Similarly the pleas go deeper as they succeed each other; for the psalmists trust and waiting is superficial as compared with the plea breathed in the name of "the God of my salvation"; and that general designation leads to the gaze upon the ancient and changeless mercies, which constitute the measure and pattern of Gods working (according to, Psa_25:7), and upon the self-originated motive, which is the deepest and strongest of all arguments with Him (for Thy goodness sake, Psa_25:7).

A qualification of the guest in Gods house was in Psalms 24, the negative one that he did not lift up his soul-i.e., set his desires-on the emptinesses of time and sense. Here the psalmist begins with the plea that he has set his on Jehovah, and, as the position of "Unto Thee, Jehovah," at the beginning shows, on Him alone. The very nature of such aspiration after God demands that it shall be exclusive. All in all or not at all is the requirement of true devotion, and such completeness is not attained without continual withdrawal of desire from created good. The tendrils of the heart must be untwined from other props before they can be wreathed round their true stay. The irregularity in Psa_25:2, where the second, not the first, word of the verse begins with Beth, may be attenuated by treating the Divine name as outside the acrostic order. An acute conjecture, however, that the last clause of Psa_25:5 really belongs to Psa_25:1 and should include "my God" now in Psa_25:2, has much in its favour. Its transposition restores to both verses the two-claused structure which runs through the psalm, gets rid of the acrostical anomaly, and emphasises the subsequent reference to those who wait on Jehovah in Psa_25:3.

In that case Psa_25:2 begins with the requisite letter. It passes from plea to petition: "Let me not be shamed." Trust that was not vindicated by deliverance would cover the face with confusion. "Hopes that breed not shame" are the treasure of him whose hope is in Jehovah. Foes unnamed threaten; but the stress of the petitions in the first section of the psalm is less on enemies than on sins. One cry for protection from the former is all that the psalmist utters, and then his prayer swiftly, turns to deeper needs. In the last section the petitions are more exclusively for deliverance from enemies. Needful as such escape is, it is less needful than the knowledge of Gods ways, and the man in extremest peril orders his desires rightly, if he asks holiness first and safety second. The cry in Psa_25:2 rests upon the confidence nobly, expressed in Psa_25:3, in which the verbs are not optatives, but futures, declaring a truth certain to be realised in the psalmists experience, because it is true for all who, like him, wait on Jehovah. True prayer is the individuals sheltering himself under the broad folds of the mantle that covers all who pray. The double confidence as to the waiters on Jehovah and the "treacherous without cause" is the summary of human experience as read by faith. Sense has much to adduce in contradiction, but the dictum is nevertheless true, only its truth does not always appear in the small arc of the circle which lies between cradle and grave.

The prayer for deliverance glides into that for guidance, since the latter is the deeper need, and the former will scarcely be answered unless the suppliants will docilely offers the latter. The soul lifted to Jehovah will long to know His will and submit itself to His manifold teachings. "Thy ways" and "Thy paths" necessarily mean here the ways in which Jehovah desires that the psalmist should go. "In Thy truth" is ambiguous, both as to the preposition and the noun. The clause may either present Gods truth (i.e., faithfulness) as His motive for answering the prayer, or His truth (i.e., the objective revelation) as the path for men. Predominant usage inclines to the former signification of the noun, but the possibility still remains of regarding Gods faithfulness as the path in which the psalmist desires to be led, i.e., to experience it. The cry for forgiveness strikes a deeper note of pathos, and, as asking a more wondrous blessing, grasps still more firmly the thought of what Jehovah is and always has been. The appeal is made to "Thy compassions and lovingkindnesses," as belonging to His nature, and to their past exercise as having been "from of old." Emboldened thus, the psalmist can look back on his own past, both on his outbursts of youthful passion and levity, which he calls "failures," as missing the mark, and on the darker evils of later manhood, which he calls "rebellions," and can trust that Jehovah will think upon him according to His mercy, and for the sake of His goodness or love. The vivid realisation of that Eternal Mercy as the very mainspring of Gods actions, and as setting forth, in many an ancient deed, the eternal pattern or His dealings, enables a man to bear the thought of his own sins.

The contemplation of the Divine character prepares the way for the transition to the second group of seven verses, which are mainly meditation on that character and on Gods dealings and the blessedness of those who fear Him (Psa_25:8-14). The thought of God beautifully draws the singer from himself. How deeply and lovingly he had pondered on the name of the Lord before he attained to the grand truth that His goodness and very uprightness pledged Him to show sinners where they should walk! Since there is at the heart of things an infinitely pure and equally loving Being, nothing is more impossible than that He should wrap Himself in thick darkness and leave men to grope after duty. Revelation of the path of life in some fashion is the only conduct consistent with His character. All presumptions are in favor of such Divine teaching: and the fact of sin makes it only the more certain. That fact may separate men from God, but not God from men, and if they transgress, the more need both in their characters and in Gods. is there that He should speak. But while their being sinners does not prevent His utterance, their disposition determines their actual reception of His teaching, and "the meek" or lowly of heart are His true scholars. His instruction is not wasted on them, and, being welcomed, is increased. A fuller communication of His will rewards the humble acceptance of it. Sinners are led in the way; the meek are taught His way. Here the conception of Gods way is in transition from its meaning in Psa_25:4 to that in Psa_25:10, where it distinctly must mean His manner of dealing with men. They who accept His teaching, and order their paths as He would have them do, will learn that the impulse and meaning of all which He does to them are "mercy and truth," the two great attributes to which the former petitions appealed, and which the humble of heart, who observe the conditions of Gods covenant which is witness of His own character and of their duty, will see gleaming with lambent light even in calamities.

The participators, then, in this blessed knowledge have a threefold character: sinners humble: keepers of the covenant and testimonies. The thought of these requirements drives the psalmist back on himself, as it will do all devout souls, and forces from him a short ejaculation of prayer, which breaks with much pathos and beauty the calm flow of contemplation. The pleas for forgiveness of the "iniquity" which makes him feel unworthy of Jehovahs guidance are remarkable. "For Thy names sake" appeals to the revealed character of God, as concerned in the suppliants pardon, inasmuch as it will be honoured thereby, and God will be true to Himself in forgiving. "For it is great" speaks the boldness of helplessness. The magnitude of sin demands a Divine intervention. None else than God can deal with it. Faith makes the very greatness of sin and extremity of need a reason for Gods act of pardon.

Passing from self, the singer again recurs to his theme, reiterating in vivid language and with some amplification the former thoughts. In Psa_25:8-10 the character of Jehovah was the main subject, and the men whom He blessed were in the background. In Psa_25:12-14 they stand forward. Their designation now is the wide one of "those who fear Jehovah," and the blessings they receive are, first, that of being taught the way, which has been prominent thus far, but here has a new phase, as being "the way that he should choose"; i.e., Gods teaching illuminates the path, and tells a man what he ought to do, while his freedom of choice is uninfringed. Next, outward blessings of settled prosperity shall be his, and his children shall have the promises to Israel fulfilled in their possession of the land. These outward blessings belong to the Old Testament epoch, and can only partially be applied to the present stage of Providence. But the final element of the good mans blessedness (Psa_25:14) is eternally true. Whether we translate the first word "secret" or "friendship," the sense is substantially the same. Obedience and the true fear of Jehovah directly tend to discernment of His purposes, and will besides be rewarded by whispers from heaven. God would not hide from Abraham what he would do, and still His friend will know His mind better than the disobedient. The last clause of Psa_25:14 is capable of various renderings. "His covenant" may be in the accusative, and the verb a periphrastic future, as the A.V. takes it, or the former word may be nominative, and the clause be rendered, "And His covenant [is] to make them to know." But the absolute use of the verb without a specification of the object taught is somewhat harsh, and probably the former rendering is to be preferred. The deeper teaching of the covenant which follows on the fear of the Lord includes both its obligations and blessings, and the knowledge is not mere intellectual perception, but vital experience. In this region life is knowledge, and knowledge life. Whoso "keeps His covenant" (Psa_25:10) will ever grow in appropriation of its blessings and apprehension of its obligations by his submissive will.

The third heptad of verses returns to simple petition, and that, with one exception (Psa_25:18 b), for deliverance from enemies. This recurrence, in increased intensity, of the consciousness of hostility is not usual, for the psalms which begin with it generally pray themselves out of it. "The peace which passeth understanding," which is the best answer to prayer, has not fully settled on the heaving sea. A heavy ground swell runs in these last short petitions, which all mean substantially the same thing. But there is a beginning of calm; and the renewed petitions are a pattern of that continual knocking of which such great things are said and recorded in Scripture. The section begins with a declaration of patient expectance: "Mine eyes are ever towards Jehovah," with wistful fixedness which does not doubt though it has long to look. Nets are wrapped round his feet, inextricably but for one hand. We can bear to feel our limbs entangled and fettered, if our eyes are free to gaze, and fixed in gazing, upwards. The desired deliverance is thrice presented (Psa_25:16, "turn unto"; Psa_25:18, "look upon"; Psa_25:19, "consider," lit. look upon) as the result of Jehovahs face being directed towards the psalmist.

When Jehovah turns to a man, the light streaming from His face makes darkness day. The pains on which He "looks" are soothed; the enemies whom He beholds shrivel beneath His eye. The psalmist believes that Gods presence, in the deeper sense of that phrase, as manifested partly through delivering acts and partly through inward consciousness, is his one need, in which all deliverances and gladnesses are enwrapped. He plaintively pleads, "For I am alone and afflicted." The soul that has awakened to the sense of the awful solitude of personal being, and stretched out yearning desires to the only God, and felt that with Him it would know no pain in loneliness, will not cry in vain. In Psa_25:17 a slight alteration in the text, the transference of the final Vav of one word to the beginning of the next, gets rid of the incongruous phrase "are enlarged" as applied to troubles (lit. straits), and gives a prayer which is in keeping with the familiar use of the verb in reference to afflictions: "The troubles of my heart do Thou enlarge, {cf. Psa_18:36} and from my distresses," etc. Psa_25:18 should begin with Qoph, but has Resh, which is repeated in the following verse, to which it rightly belongs. It is at least noteworthy that the anomaly makes the petition for Jehovahs "look" more emphatic, and brings into prominence the twofold direction of it. The "look" on the psalmists affliction and pain will be tender and sympathetic, as a mother eagles on her sick eaglet; that on his foes will be stern and destructive, many though they be. In Psa_25:11 the prayer for pardon was sustained by the plea that the sin was "great"; in Psa_25:19 that for deliverance from foes rests on the fact that "they are many," for which the verb cognate with the adjective of Psa_25:11 is used. Thus both dangers without and evils within are regarded as crying out by their multitude, for Gods intervention. The wreath is twined so that its end is brought round to its beginning. "Let me not be ashamed, for I trust in Thee," is the second petition of the first part repeated; and "I wait on Thee," which is the last word of the psalm, omitting the superfluous verse, echoes the clause which it is proposed to transfer to Psa_25:1. Thus the two final verses correspond to the two initial, the last but one to the first but one, and the last to the first. The final prayer is that "integrity (probably complete devotion of heart to God) and uprightness" (in relation to men) may preserve him, as guardian angels; but this does not assert the possession of these, but is a petition for the gift of them quite as much as for their preserving action. The implication of that petition is that no harm can imperil or destroy him whom these characteristics guard. That is true in the whole sweep of human life, however often contradicted in the judgment of sense.

Like Psalms 34, this concludes with a supplementary verse beginning with Pe, a letter already represented in the acrostic scheme. This may be a later addition for liturgical purposes.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

Ps 25 This individual lament includes instruction in wisdom and a community lament; it begins and ends with an affirmation of trust in the Lord (25:1-3, 15-22). The psalmist prays for guidance (25:4-7) and encourages the godly to practice a lifestyle of wisdom (25:12-14). In addition to the enemies who trouble him, the psalmist confesses his sins (25:7, 11, 18) as part of his anguish. Trust develops with understanding God’s character: He is compassionate, faithful, and good (25:8-10).

25:1-3 The psalmist expresses confidence that the godly will be vindicated and his enemies will not succeed (see 25:15-22).

25:1 The psalmist commits himself to the Lord instead of to idols (see 24:3-4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I put not my trust in any worldly thing.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

PSALM XXV

The psalmist, in great distress, calls upon God frequently, 1-5;

prays for pardon with the strong confidence of being heard,

6-11;

shows the blessedness of the righteous, 12-14;

again earnestly implores the Divine mercy; and prays for the

restoration of Israel, 15-22.

NOTES ON PSALM XXV

This Psalm seems to refer to the case of the captives in Babylon, who complain of oppression from their enemies, and earnestly beg the help and mercy of God.

It is the first of those called acrostic Psalms, i.e., Psalms each line of which begins with a several letter of the Hebrew alphabet in their common order. Of acrostic Psalms there are seven, viz., Ps 25, Ps 34, Ps 37, Ps 111, Ps 112, Ps 119, and Ps 145. It is fashionable to be violent in encomiums on the Jews for the very faithful manner in which they have preserved the Hebrew Scriptures; but these encomiums are, in general, ill placed. Even this Psalm is a proof with what carelessness they have watched over the sacred deposit committed to their trust. The letter vau is wanting in the fifth verse, and koph in the eighteenth; the letter resh being twice inserted, once instead of koph, and a whole line added at the end, entirely out of the alphabetical series.

Verse 1. Do I lift up my soul.] His soul was cast down, and by prayer and faith he endeavours to lift it up to God.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. Unto thee, O Jehovah! etc The Psalmist declares at the very outset, that he is not driven hither and thither, after the manner of the ungodly, but that he directs all his desires and prayers to God alone. Nothing is more inconsistent with true and sincere prayer to God, than to waver and gaze about as the heathen do, for some help from the world; and at the same time to forsake God, or not to betake ourselves directly to his guardianship and protection. Those who imagine that David here declares that he had devoted himself entirely to God, as if he had offered up himself in sacrifice, do not properly understand the import of the passage. The meaning rather is, that in order to strengthen the hope of obtaining his request, he declares, what is of the greatest importance in prayer, that he had his hope fixed in God, and that he was not ensnared by the allurements of the world, or prevented from lifting up his soul fully and unfeignedly to God. In order, therefore, that we may pray aright to God, let us be directed by this rule — not to distract our minds by various and uncertain hopes, nor to depend on worldly aid, but to yield to God the honor of lifting up our hearts to him in sincere and earnest prayer. Moreover, although the verb is properly rendered, I will lift up, yet I have followed other interpreters in changing it into the past tense, I have lifted up By the future tense, however, David denotes a continued act.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Either "in prayer", as the Chaldee paraphrase adds (s); and denotes sincere, affectionate, hearty prayer to God, a drawing nigh to him with a true heart: for unless the heart is lifted up, the lifting up of the eyes or hands in prayer is of no avail; see Lam 3:41; or by way of offering to the Lord, as some Jewish writers (t) interpret it; David not only presented his body in public worship, but his soul also as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which was his reasonable service; or else as a "depositum", which he committed into the hands of God, to be under his care and protection; and then the sense is the same with Psa 31:5 (u); the phrase is sometimes used to express earnest and vehement desire after anything; See Gill on Psa 24:4; and may here intend the very great desire of the psalmist after communion with God; which is elsewhere by him expressed by panting after him, and by thirsting for him in a dry and thirsty land, Psa 42:1; the desires of his soul were not to vain things, the vanities and idols of the Gentiles, but to God only, and to the remembrance of his name.

(s) So Kimchi & Ben Melech. (t) R. Moseh in Aben Ezra in loc. (u) Midrash Tillim.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul - In meditation; in gratitude; in praise. The idea is, that the thoughts are lifted up from earth and earthly subjects to God. This is the beginning of the meditation; this gives character, perhaps, to the psalm. The state of mind is that of one who turns cheerfully away from earthly themes, and opens his mind to more lofty and hallowed influences. The mind begins with God; and, beginning with this, the current of thought is allowed to flow on, gathering up such ideas as would come in under this general purpose. Opening the mind to this influence, thoughts would flow in upon the soul embracing a wide range, and perhaps not very closely connected among themselves, but all of which would be fitted to raise the heart to God in meditation, thankfulness, and praise.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

i.e. I direct my desires and prayers (which are expressed by this phrase, Psa 24:4; Jer 22:27; Lam 3:41) with hope or expectation of a gracious answer, which also it implies, Deu 24:15.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. Unto thee, O Lord—The address is emphatic. To thee only, exclusive of all trust in false gods, or in men.

Lift up my soul—A Hebraism for, I direct all my desire to thee.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THIS is the second of the "alphabetic psalms." It is not so irregular as Psalm 9, but still is defective in some respects, the letters beth and vau being omitted in their proper place, resh being substituted for koph, and a second he being addled at the end. Some of these variations may be accidental, but others would seem to have been intentional, being found also in Ps 34. The psalm consists of a number of prayers, reflections, and pious ejaculations, not drawn up in any systematic order, and not very clearly connected by any single line of thought. The separate portions have, however, in many cases much beauty; and it is observed that "some of the most precious spiritual treasures of the Church have been drawn from tiffs psalm" (Kay). The thoughts are quite worthy of the writer to whom it is attributed in the title, viz. David; and the alphabetic arrangement, which has been urged against David"s authorship, is scarcely conclusive on the point. Many of the best critics regard Ps 9 and Ps 34, which, like this, are imperfectly alphabetic, as David"s.

The metrical arrangement is not very marked. Some divide the psalm into five unequal strophes vers. 1-7, vers. 8-10, vers. 11-15, vers. 16-21, and ver. 22; others see no divisions beyond those of the Hebrew verses, which are followed in our Authorized Bible.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift; up my soul. (comp. Psa_86:4 Psa_143:8) The Hebrew phrase does not mean a temporary raising of the heart to God, but a permanent setting of the affections on him. (see Deu_24:15; and comp. Psa_24:4)

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-22. Prayer: its warrant, petitions, and arguments.

It is thought by some that this prayer belongs to the Exile period; but by whomsoever it may have been penned, or at whatsoever age, matters little. There is nothing in it which depends on known historic incident for its elucidation. And whoever desires to dive into the depths of its meaning will find the habit of waiting on God the best key to its words and phrases. No merely natural man can possibly unravel spiritual things, and he who is a stranger to prayer will get no help whatever in the understanding of this psalm from all the scholastic critics in the world. There are a few doubtful phrases, on which Perowne"s notes will throw some light; but, speaking generally, this is one of the psalms on which Calvin and Matthew Henry will furnish adequately suggestive remarks. Reserving all dealing with specific texts in it for other writers in this Commentary, we propose to survey the psalm as a whole, though it may be that each heading thereon might furnish a theme for separate discourse. This prayer of an Old Testament saint suggests

I THAT WE KNOW ENOUGH OF GOD TO FURNISH US WITH A SOUND BASIS FOR PRAYER. Interspersed among the several petitions there are here several statements of exquisite beauty (cf. vers. 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 3, 13). These may be thus set forth:

1. God is good and upright; therefore will he teach and guide those who seek him. Good, so that he delights to do it; upright, so that he will be true to his promise.

2. This guidance he vouchsafes to the meek (ver. 9). Taken in a physical sense, the word translated "meek" is equivalent to "afflicted;" in a moral sense its meaning is as given here. (cf. Jam_1:21 Jam_4:6 Mat_11:25)

3. To loyal souls all his ways are mercy and truth (ver. 10); hence he cannot shut his ear to their prayer (see also ver. 12). "Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose;" Luther, "Er wird ihn unterweiseuden besten Weg.

4. He will give such souls a rest and refuge in himself (ver. 13)."His soul shall lodge in goodness". (Hebrew cf. Psa_91:1 Hebrew)

5. To such God will open up the heavenly secrets of his covenant love. A glorious anticipation, By spiritual intuition, in Old Testament times, of Joh_15:15.

6. He will never put to shame those that wait on him (ver. 3, Revised Version; see Perowne"s note thereon). As followers of our Lord Jesus, we may add to all this the amazing statement, "The Father seeketh such to worship him." God is not only willing to receive their worship, but he eagerly desires it. (Joh_4:23)

II THAT PRAYER IS THE HIGHEST EFFORT OF MAN. It is described in the first verse as "lifting up the soul to God". (cf. Psa_121:1 Psa_143:8) This the psalmist did

(1) in the morning; (Psa_5:3)

(2) at noon and at evening; (Psa_55:17)

(3) seven times a day; (Psa_119:164)

(4) all the day; (Psa_25:5)

(5) Perpetually. (Psa_25:15)

The psalmist prayed not only when trouble came, but always. His heart spontaneously went up ever to God, as to the Friend without whose smile he could not live, and without whose protection he dared not move. Note: For elevation of life our spirits must be ever looking above and beyond themselves. An upward look will uplift character; the downward look will degrade.

III THAT INWARD CONFLICTS AND OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES OFTEN GIVE SPECIAL INTENSITY TO PRAYER. Glancing over the varied forms of expression which indicate the psalmist"s mental state and his surroundings, we shall see this:

1. The remembrance of past sins troubles him. Oh that the young would beware of sin! Long, long after it is forgiven by God, it will poison and worry the memory (ver. 7). So much so, that only as the sinning one flings himself on mercy, can he have any rest at all.

2. The psalmist is desolate, afflicted (ver. 16), troubled in heart (ver. 17), in a net (ver. 15), surrounded with bitter enemies (ver. 19). What a burden of care and grief he has to roll over upon God] Note: It is an infinite mercy to be Permitted to tell God exactly what we feel, and all that we feel, knowing that we shall never be misunderstood, but that we shall be laying open all our griefs only before infinite goodness and mercy.

IV THE SPECIFIC PETITIONS IN PRAYER MAY BE VARIED AS OUR NEED. The petitions specified in this psalm are mainly for himself, but not exclusively. Those for himself are such as any child of God may present at any time. The special colouring given to each must need be the reflection of hues of his own, "fresh borrowed from the heart." The psalmist"s petitions for himself may be grouped under eight heads.

1. That God would not put him to shame before his enemies (ver. 2).

2. He prays for light (ver. 4).

3. For teaching in the way in which he should go (vers. 4, 5).

4. That he may have experience in God"s faithfulness (ver. 5; see notes, "Variorum Bible").

5. For loving-kindness and mercy (ver. 6).

6. For forgiveness (ver. 11).

7. For Divine guardianship (ver. 20).

8. For a gracious, compassionate look (ver. 18).

9. That amidst all temptations to wander from the way, he may be kept in integrity and uprightness (vers. 21, 22).

But the pleading one cannot close without one prayer for the Church of God. (ver. 22; cf. Psa_51:18, Psa_51:19) A noble, pious, public spirit existed in the Old Testament saints. Such a one as the writer of this psalm cannot forget his people at a throne of grace. Well would it be if such earnest public spirit were possessed by Christian people everywhere, so that, as priests unto God, they would never enter the holy of holies save with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel graven on their breast.

V THE PRAYING ONE MAY USE MANIFOLD ARGUMENTS IN PLEADING WITH HIS GOD. There is a blending of simplicity, boldness, and grandeur in the pleas of this prayer.

1. "I trust in thee" (ver. 2). When there is trust on one side, we may be sure it is reciprocated by love and pity on God"s side.

2. "Thou art the God of my salvation" (ver. 5). Thou hast undertaken to deliver me, and thou wilt be true to thine own promises. God loves to be reminded of his promises. He has never said in vain to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me.

3. "Remember thy tender mercies," etc. (ver. 6). David"s past experience of God"s mercy was a pledge that God would not forget him.

4. "For thy Name"s sake" (ver. 11). Gracious answers to his people"s prayer magnify God"s Name; they reveal his grace and love. And the psalmist, in holy daring, pleads with God to magnify his own Name in hearing him. Yea, more; a more startling argument still is used.

5. "For it mine iniquity is great" (ver. 11)! Who but those who know bow God delights to forgive, and even to multiply pardons, could ever venture to plead for forgiveness because their sin was so great? Yet surely the meaning is, "Lord, though my sin is great, the greater will thy mercy be, and the more lustrously thy pardoning love will shine forth on the background of my guilt!" Such prayers and such pleadings as these are not learnt in a day nor in a year. They can come only from one whose eyes are ever towards the Lord.

VI SUCH TRUSTING AND PRAYING ONES WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME. (Ver. 3, Revised Version.) They never have been. They never will be. They cannot be. The revealed character and attributes of God assure us of this. The opening up of the new and living way to God, which our great High Priest has consecrated for ever for our use, ensures it. The blood of Christ seals the same; it is the "blood of the everlasting covenant." The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost is another pledge of the efficacy of prayer. Yea, the immutability of God himself confirms this; not only that prayer will avail, but also that without prayer we have no right to expect the blessings we need. Our Lord has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Thus he teaches the Divine rule for us. If, then, it is God"s will to give us blessing when we ask, it is useless for us to think to change the mind of God, and to expect the blessing without asking for it. C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-7. Onward and upward.

There are different stages in the life of godliness. Hence experiences vary. Some are but babes, others are strong men. Some have only started in the race, others are nearing the goal. Some have only put on their armour, while others have borne themselves bravely in many a fight and are waiting the crown. Some have only entered by the wicket-gate, while others have gone through most of their pilgrimage; they have climbed the Hill Difficulty, have passed safely through the Valley of Humiliation and Vanity Fair; have stood on the Delectable Mountains, and are now resting in the pleasant Land of Beulah, till called home to the heavenly city. The psalmist here speaks like a man of matured wisdom and piety. His voice is not that of one beginning the spiritual life, but rather of one who, like "Paul the aged," has seen many days, and has gathered large stores of experience. We find here

I HOLY ASPIRATION. The psalmist was a man of prayer. His yearnings were ever towards God. There was much to weigh him down; but against all obstacles he pressed upward and onward. "Nearer my God, nearer to thee," was his cry.

II APPROPRIATING FAITH. There is not only faith in God as God, but the higher and nobler faith of appropriation. "My God." This implied knowledge and personal trust. But while the confession is boldly made, it is accompanied by true lowliness of heart. The sense of weakness; the danger of yielding to false shame; the possibility of being overborne, as others had been, by the might and craftiness of the toe, constrain the soul to cling the more closely to God.

III LOVING SELF-SURRENDER. Here is the spirit of the learner (ver. 4), humble and trustful, willing to be led and to be taught of God. It is what we find in Paul, who cried, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and then, in obedience to the heavenly vision, was content to sit at the feet of the humble Ananias of Damascus. We must feel ourselves simply and unreservedly in the hands of God, if we are to learn aright. If we trust to our own wisdom, we shall go astray, if we take counsel of men, we are in danger of being led into by-paths and devious ways; but if we commit ourselves to God, he will guide us into all the truth, and lead us in the way everlasting.

IV LOYAL SERVICE. "Waiting" does not imply inaction. It is not resting in ease, or folding the hands in idleness, or holding back from effort, as if we could do nothing. Rather it implies faith and work. (Psa_123:2) We see also that there is no limit or stop to the service. It is not for an, hour, but all the day," So it was with our blessed Lord; (Joh_11:9) so it should be with us.

V QUICKENING MEMORIES. The mercies of the past are pledges of mercies in the future (ver. 6). "Of old" reaches far back. Imagination looks to the beginnings when God first showed mercy to sinful man; while memory recalls the special tokens and proofs of Divine kindness to ourselves. God"s mercies always flow in the channel of his righteousness.

VI INSPIRING HOPES. Memory has its pains as well as its pleasures. As the psalmist looks back, the "sins of his youth" come up before him. But God is merciful. Other sins also rise in dread array; not only errors, but "transgressions," wherein he had wilfully offended. Again the only refuge is in God. The worse our case, the greater our need of mercy. God"s Name inspires hope, and assures us not only of forgiveness, but of grace to sanctify and sustain our souls till the conflict closes in victory, and our prayers end in praise. W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-7. Trust in God.

"Belongs probably to the time of the Exile. Its prevailing thought is that God is the Teacher of the afflicted and the Guide of the erring; and this is constantly repeated, either in the way of statement or of prayer." The first seven verses contain three things.

I ASPIRING TRUST IN GOD. (Vers. 1-3) Seeking, drawn towards, lifting himself up towards God, waiting upon him, all signify the earnest, confident trust in God, which is the highest act of the soul towards the great Invisible Being. This is associated with obedience; for transgressors will be confounded; they have no ground for expecting salvation, and will be made ashamed.

II EARNEST PRAYER FOR GUIDANCE. (Vers. 4, 5) "Show me thy ways;" "Teach me thy paths;" "Lead me in thy truth.

(1) Help me to understand thy providence or government, for I am often perplexed by it.

(2) Teach me the paths in which thou wouldst have me walk.

(3) Let me live in the experience of thy faithfulness.

(1) Enlighten my thoughts, and give me the power to interpret thy ways of acting.

(2) Control my conduct, move me to duty, and give me an obedient heart.

(3) Help me to trust in the truth of thy Word and thy ways. For thou art saving me, and I am waiting on thee to this end.

III A CRY FOR GOD"S UNCHANGEABLE MERCY. (Vers. 6, 7) God"s mercy is called "tender mercy" and "loving-kindness," to indicate its qualities and its source. And it is everlasting and unchangeable, because God cannot be unlike himself; he cannot change his nature nor his conduct. The cry here is for mercy upon the sins of his youth.

1. The sins of youth are the sins of impulse, of inconsideration. Not deliberate sins, but better remembered than sins of later life.

2. The sins of inexperience and ignorance. We know not what we do like Christ"s murderers when we transgress. The plea is, "According to thy loving-kindness," etc. For the sake of thy goodness, because thou art love, because thou art good, do these favours for me. This is the everlasting plea with God that sinners must use; not that God can be made propitious towards us, but that he is propitious, has been, and will always remain so, "not willing that any should perish. S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

David distrest, takes refuge in God, ver. 1-7. Shews the goodness of God to them that fear him, ver. 8-15. Prays for help against his enemies, and for the church, ver. 16-22. A psalm of David.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Psalm begins, like Psa 16:1-11; Psa 23:1, with a monostich. Psa 25:2 is the ב strophe, אלהי (unless one is disposed to read בך אלהי according to the position of the words in Psa 31:2), after the manner of the interjections in the tragedians, e.g., oo'moi, not being reckoned as belonging to the verse (J. D. Kצhler). In need of help and full of longing for deliverance he raises his soul, drawn away from earthly desires, to Jahve (Psa 86:4; Psa 143:8), the God who alone can grant him that which shall truly satisfy his need. His ego, which has the soul within itself, directs his soul upwards to Him whom he calls אלהי, because in believing confidence he clings to Him and is united with Him. The two אל declare what Jahve is not to allow him to experience, just as in Psa 31:2, Psa 31:18. According to Psa 25:19, Psa 25:20; Psa 38:17, it is safer to construe לי with יעלצוּ (cf. Psa 71:10), as also in Psa 27:2; Psa 30:2, Mic 7:8, although it would be possible to construe it with אויבי (cf. Psa 144:2). In Psa 25:3 the confident expectation of the individual is generalised.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Psalm 25

THE first of the alphabetical psalms, in which the verses begin with the different Hebrew letters in their order, an arrangement peculiar to those psalms, in which a single theme or idea is repeated under various forms, and, as it were, in a series of aphorisms. Now and then, in order to complete the expression of the thought, the series of the letters is neglected, either by repeating or omitting one. In this psalm, for example, two successive verses begin with x, and two with r, while v and q are left out.

The first verse, however, does not properly belong to the alphabetical series, but constitutes one sentence with the short verse at the end, which is added after the completion of the alphabet. The theme which runs through this psalm is deliverance from enemies, occasionally blended with a prayer for the divine forgiveness.

1. By David. Unto thee, Jehovah, my soul will I lift up, or as some explain it, bring or carry. All agree, however, that the essential idea is that of confident desire. See above, on Psa 24:4, and compare Psa 86:4; Psa 143:8, below, where the phrase occurs again. The sentiment expressed is that of settled confidence in God, to the exclusion of all other helpers.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A Prayer for Merciful Protection and Guidance.

A psalm of David.

v. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, in an emphatic singling out of Jehovah as the one true God, do I lift up my soul, withdrawn from all earthly desires, with a fervent longing for Jehovah’s salvation.

v. 2. 0 my God, I trust in Thee, abiding firmly in this confidence; let me not be ashamed, become an object of mockery; let not mine enemies triumph over me, with exulting jeers over the foolishness of his trust.

v. 3. Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed, their hope coming to naught; let them be ashamed, all their vain hopes being dashed to the ground, which transgress without cause, becoming traitors, perfidious, to the cause of the Lord and of righteousness without provocation, out of pure wickedness.

v. 4. Show me Thy ways, O Lord, so that he might know and understand them properly; teach me Thy paths, God’s gracious ways of dealing with His children on earth.

v. 5. Lead me in Thy truth, that of His eternal Word, and teach me, that being the only true source of knowledge; for Thou art the God of my salvation, the true and only Deliverer from every form of danger, sin, and death; on Thee do I wait all the day, looking to Him alone for guidance.

v. 6. Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy loving kindnesses, the many instances in which He had shown His kindness and mercy; for they have been ever of old, they are the attributes of the eternal God and heavenly Father.

v. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions, those committed in youthful folly often resting heavily upon the conscience throughout all the years of maturity, and the assurance of their being forgiven yielding great comfort to a harassed heart; according to Thy mercy, His unmerited favor in Christ Jesus, the Messiah, remember Thou me for Thy goodness’ sake, O Lord, that being the only hope of a poor sinner. And this hope has the soundest basic

v. 8. Good and upright is the Lord, faithful, acting in accordance with His promises; therefore will He teach sinners in the way, instructing them which is the right way to go.

v. 9. The meek, the humble in heart, will He guide in judgment, guiding them in the knowledge of what is right; and the meek, the real poor sinners, will He teach His way, which is the only right way.

v. 10. All the paths of the Lord, His modes of dealing with His children, are mercy and truth, grace in promising and faithfulness in performing, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies, letting the Word of God be their only guide in all the vicissitudes of their lives. All this being true with regard to Jehovah, the petition of the poor sinner will surely be heard.

v. 11. For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, in order to bring honor and glory upon Himself, pardon mine iniquity, the guilt which he had loaded upon himself by his transgressions; for it is great, a confession to which all true children of God will agree as they realize their sinfulness more and more.

v. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord, after having seen such manifestations of God’s pardoning love as here set forth? Him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose, so that the sinner, assured of the pardon of the Lord, will be eager to choose the right, the best way.

v. 13. His soul shall dwell at ease, enjoying good fortune and prosperity under the blessing of God; and his seed shall inherit the earth, the promise of the possession of Canaan having been given to Israel and that of a happy life on earth being held out to all believers.

v. 14. The secret of the Lord, the intimate association of His friendship, is with them that fear Him, so that He makes known to them things which are hidden to others; and He will show them His covenant, making known to them the gracious terms of His pardon in the Gospel message.

v. 15. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, fixed upon Him in hope and trust; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net, delivering him from all the dangers arising from the craft and guile of the enemies.

v. 16. Turn Thee unto me, in compassionate attention, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted, it being the lot of the true believers to be isolated and ostracized by the children of the world.

v. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged, distresses had extended themselves and spread out over his heart, engulfing it beneath their flood. O bring Thou me out of my distresses! leading him out of all narrow and oppressive circumstances.

v. 18. Look upon mine affliction and my pain, his dejection due to his misery and hardship, and forgive all my sins, this pardon being the greatest spiritual gift.

v. 19. Consider mine enemies, looking upon them; for they are many, that being the experience of all believers; and they hate me with cruel hatred, their hatred being unreasonable and contemplating injury and violence.

v. 20. O keep my soul and deliver me, this being an easy matter for the almighty power of Jehovah; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in Thee, and therefore any mockery on the part of the enemies would reflect dishonor on the Lord as well.

v. 21. Let integrity and uprightness, true piety and honesty, which despises hypocrisy and every form of crookedness, preserve me, being his companions on the way of righteousness; for I wait on Thee, Jehovah being the foundation of his hope.

v. 22. Redeem Israel, O God, not only David, but the entire congregation of believers of all times and in all circumstances, out of all his troubles. May God deliver the entire Christian Church from all evils of body and soul, property and honor, and finally take all His children from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven!

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 25:7

The true significance of the present is not revealed in the present. Only the lapse of years makes us dispassionate judges of our earlier selves. The text is the utterance of a man who is letting a sorrowful and faultful past come home to his matured judgment to be tried by its higher standards and its clearer discrimination.

I. "Remember not the sins of my youth." The truth assumed in these words is one which concerns the character of God, the truth, namely, that God cannot be passive in any moral relation. For God to remember sin is to assume an active and hostile relation to sin.

II. In answer to such an appeal as this, we are not to expect either that God will shut sin out of His remembrance, or change His attitude towards sin. But His remembrance of the sinner involves all the infinite activity of His love towards the sinner. It is on this relation of God to the sinner that David throws himself.

III. How then, in answer to this prayer, will man stand related to the follies and sins of his past life? (1) He will not be entirely rid of their consequences, especially of their physical consequences. (2) Nor will God cease to use the faultful past in the new man’s education. (3) In the heart will come a tranquil rest, founded simply upon the conviction that God has taken the whole sadly confused and stained life into His own hands. (4) With this conviction there will come a turning with fresh zest to redeem the time which remains.

M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country, p. 75.

Reference: Psa 25:8.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 81.

Psa 25:9

I. Humility dates from Jesus Christ. At the feet of Jesus Christ, at the feet of Him whom St. John calls the Light, worldly virtues grow dim and are effaced, as the brilliancy of the most cleverly imitated jewels grows dim near the lustre of a pure diamond. But there is something more efficacious than the sight of the perfection of Jesus Christ to produce humility; it is the sight of His love. It is at the foot of the Cross humility is born; that Divine flower, hitherto unknown by the world, came out of the earth moistened by the blood of Christ. That is its natural soil. Elsewhere it can only perish and dry up.

II. Christian humility should penetrate our entire being. Since all parts of our being have participated in the revolt of sin, all must bow before God. (1) Our intelligence must be humble. A great Christian has said, "I love a shadow at the side of God much better than a light at the side of men." It is good for the soul to sit down in that shadow, to breathe the air of the mysteries which humble us and sanctify us. (2) Humbleness of the intelligence is blended with humbleness of the heart, and the humility of the heart should pass into the life.

III. Consider the promise which God makes to Christian humility in the text: "The meek will He teach His way." These words bind earth to heaven. There is here below therefore a way which leads to God, a way where we can walk with God; in the midst of all these roads which cross each other, and which nearly all lead to vanity, there is a way which ends in no abyss, and which crosses victoriously the valley of the shadow of death. Would you know the way that leads to God? Be humble. Pride wants to see God face to face, and His splendour blinds it. Humility bends itself before Him, and sees its path all flooded by His light. The Lord teaches His way to the humble.

E. Bersier, Sermons, vol. i., p. 237.

References: Psa 25:9.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 257. Psa 25:11.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 145. Psa 25:13.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 343.

Psa 25:14

I. The secret of the Lord must be a secret of knowledge.

II. The secret of the Lord must be a secret of safety.

III. The secret of the Lord is a secret of strength.

IV. God’s secret is a secret of peace.

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The fear of God, like everything else, must come instrumentally by practice.

C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays, p. 263.

References: Psa 25:14.—W. A. Essery, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 182; W. Logan, Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 291. Psa 25:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 741; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 102. Psalm 25—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 438.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Righteousness in grace.

[A psalm] of David.

God’s grace apprehended by the soul brings it the light which manifests it to itself, and opens the heart for its reception. So "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Joh 1:17). And so in the thirty-second psalm we find the one "to whom the Lord will not impute sin" is (as a consequence) one "in whose spirit there is no guile." This is simple enough to understand: we cannot refuse confidence, where love like this invites it. And thus it is that in this psalm first we find the full and unreserved confession of sin. God, it is seen, acts "for His name’s sake," to declare what He is: and it can thus be pleaded, "Pardon mine iniquity: for it is great." The greatness of the iniquity will only magnify the grace that puts it away. He to whom much is forgiven, the same will love much. Thus fullest grace is what does -and alone does -the work of holiness: the heart set free is bound forever to God by the deliverance.

The psalm is alphabetic, two letters being omitted, however, -vau and koph, answering numerically to 6 and 100*; in place of which resh (200) has two verses, and one verse with pe is added at the end; or else tau, the final letter, is to be taken as a two-versed section. But we shall be better able probably to inquire as to the significance of these changes, as we go through the psalm. Meanwhile the imperfect alphabet may remind us of the imperfection cleaving to all human apprehension of divine grace, and which is manifest in the psalm itself, while a defective life will be the sure accompaniment of this defective apprehension. All human failure -all the blots and disfigurements of a Christian life -are traceable to this: as surely as it is written, Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom 6:14). Most important it is to realize this.

{*Each letter in the Hebrew standing also for a numeral, as in the Greek alphabet.}

A common thought is that at least the unbalanced apprehension of grace tends to license; and in proof they would quote Jude’s comment upon those who "turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness." But Jude’s word is better translated "changing the grace of God;" and he is speaking, not of erring saints, but of "ungodly men." The common conception is that it is grace itself which, by an unguarded use of it, -a want of putting it under due conditions, -becomes thus capable of injuring the soul that too frankly and unreservedly commits itself to it. This is a great error, and one that leads to most mischievous results. One might as well think that too much holiness leads to wickedness, or too entire love to God to the casting off of holy fear of Him.

When the apostle speaks of the dominion of sin being taken away from the soul under grace, he is clearly speaking of this very apprehension of grace. He goes on to show us the contrary effect of law, and plainly to one apprehending himself under it. The effect is the discovery of a law of sin to which he is in bondage: thus sin has dominion for the man under law.

Grace is the opposite of law, and the effect is therefore the exact opposite. It is the antidote to the law of sin, the setting free from bondage to it: it is power for holiness, inasmuch as it establishes the sovereignty of God over us: God who is "love," and whose kingdom in the heart can only be realized as the heart is laid hold of for Him -is bound to Him by every faculty of its being. This is what faith produces -the response of the heart to the grace that seeks us, -the grace that in Christ has revealed God in His glory to us, so that He should be God: the light in which we see light evermore.

"Grace reigns" -is sovereign, absolute, to the children of God. Not to the setting aside of government, of holy government, but the very contrary. Grace, declared to us in Christ: in the awful, glorious atonement through the cross, secures to us even the needed discipline of a Father’s hand, by which He shows Himself as such: for "what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?" This too is grace, divine favor, taking account of all that it sees in us that is contrary to God; not to bring it against us, but to separate us from it, and work in us conformity to His nature and will. Nothing else would be grace but this sweet, holy, divine action of a Love, for us, just while against the evil in us, wise beyond all our apprehensions of it, strong, so as never to be defeated in its purpose, which is perfect unending blessing. How could any one imagine ill to come, or unholiness to be the fruit, of entire self-committal to such a grace as this? Ungodly men they are, and must be, that change this into licentiousness. Grace needs no balancing with conditions, no modification with another principle, to make it holy: it is that in its essential nature.

1. The psalm is throughout a prayer, except in the third section, which is almost entirely statement, a declaration of what Jehovah is, in those dealings with men which make known the glory of His name. Jehovah is, as that, the God of redemption and of covenant, the living, unchanging God whom man in his feebleness and inconstancy needs so to be with him. All the way through this first book of the Psalms, this Name therefore is pre-eminent. Faith anchors itself in this fastness, and the great mountains of God’s faithfulness rise all around its shelter. He so far above, to Him the soul lifts up itself, with felt distance enough to make it yearn, and yet while and because it knows Him after whom it yearns. Enemies too are in view, but faith says and sings that it shall not be ashamed; yea, that none that wait on Jehovah shall be ashamed, while it sees in God’s holiness the doom of transgressors. For itself it can only say, (and it is enough to say,) that it "trusts" and "waits."

2. The second section is still prayer; and in the nature of this it reveals that difference between the old dispensation and the new which is so often facing us. The consciousness of sin and need, however, is met by the assurance of God’s mercy, which in the third section is expanded into a much fuller and more satisfying statement.

In the first verse here the spirit of obedience is expressed, the necessary effect of divine grace, and of any true and living faith in the soul. Even when, in darkness yet as to the gospel, it makes its vows and resolutions of service to the Lord, with all the deplorable self-righteousness that is in this, yet, if truly seeking after God, this spirit will be found. The legality in it will be purged out; but the spirit of obedience will grow and develop just in proportion as God Himself is known and the freed heart rests and delights itself in Him.

"Make me to know Thy ways, Jehovah! teach me Thy paths!" These are not simply ways in which He would have us walk, but ways which are in principle His own ways. We are called and privileged to "be imitators of God, as dear children" (Eph 5:1, Gk.). And even the obedience," which is for us an essential element in this, the Son of God has "learned," and learned in suffering, too, down here among us (Heb 5:8). What an incentive and encouragement for us!

And this God, whose ways we are called to know, is the "God of salvation." This is the spring of worship, as the Lord showed at the well of Sychar (Joh 4:22); and the spirit of worship is of necessity the spirit of obedience also. This needs no demonstration. Nay, the salvation itself is, of course, a salvation from sin, or it were none at all. How suitable then is the argument, "Direct me in Thy faithfulness, and teach me; for Thou art the God of my salvation"! Faithful He must be to this purpose of His heart; and the glad soul may without weariness "wait upon Him all the day long." Thus it gathers strength, for waiting on Him is itself rest: His patience is that of Almighty power, to which nothing can be ever lacking.

The next verse breathes of the freedom of soul resulting from such knowledge. The psalmist can venture to put God in mind of those unchanging loving-kindnesses which are but the display therefore of His own nature. And thus it may seem but childishness to be putting Him in mind at all. Will the Unchangeable change? Can the Eternal forget? The very prayer avows itself to be mere human weakness, which, however, itself so strongly appeals to these "tender compassions" of God. Nor are we to make His perfections a restraint upon our prayers, but the contrary, -our encouragement to them. Otherwise all prayer would cease at once: for think of influencing the Unchangeable, or even of telling anything to the Omniscient! And yet He must be both of these, or the wings on which we rise would be crippled at once.

How truly we may be thankful then for these prayers, taught of that Spirit who "maketh intercession for the saints according to God!" He then "maketh intercession"! and perhaps in the feebleness even of a "groaning which cannot be uttered" -to us, of course, unintelligible (Rom 8:26). We are not competent to argue in this way from infinity; and for us what a loss it would be to stifle the utterance which presses so to be uttered, and which, if it be the "fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous, availeth much" (Jas 5:16). So the word of God itself assures us.

Let then our prayers bear witness of our feebleness, yet may we, with crippled Jacob, have "power with God and prevail." It were the destruction of freedom to restrain with His perfection the pouring out of our hearts before Him to which we are invited. He knows all that is in ours, who yet invites us.

But how good to have the requests to make of Him, which, if He but remember His own perfections, He will surely grant! And in all the matter of salvation, which is the matter here, this is assuredly the case. Salvation is the issue of His own counsels, the outflow of His love, the very display of His own righteousness and holiness. Thus all that He is, pledges itself at once to the lost one who puts himself as such into His hands for the fulfillment to him of this glorious purpose. This we shall find directly more fully expressed.

And now comes the confession. There are "sins and revoltings" not to be remembered: and we know the provision which divine mercy, in the new covenant, has made for this. In Israel, year by year, the scapegoat carried away the sins of the people into a place cut off; and the new covenant, in the mouth of Jeremiah, explicitly declares, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." No specifications here, -no exceptions: how blessed the wide sweep of a statement like this! the universality from which nothing is excluded. Thus well may the soul say, "According to thy mercy remember me, for thy goodness’ sake, Jehovah!" The thief on the cross could say as much; and the Lord more than answers that bold, confiding prayer: "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." When ever did the answer come from God: "You have counted on Me too much: you have imagined in Me a mercy that I have not"?

3. Now therefore the soul can confess something more than its "sins." It can speak of the "virtues of Him who hath called it out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1Pe 2:9). God in the salvation He has provided manifests Himself; for He has indeed acted for Himself, to satisfy Himself, to give way to His love; and this is the power of the gospel to reconcile -strange words as to the relation between a creature and its God! -to reconcile the heart to Him. The work of the Cross itself is not to present a motive to save, but to enable Him to do it consistently with His own righteousness. God acts for His own Name: to display Himself, which is just the supreme blessing of His creatures, that we should know Him. To "know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent" (Joh 17:3) is the true pulse-wave in our souls of eternal life.

Thus the psalmist now begins: "Good and upright is Jehovah: therefore will He guide sinners in the way." If there be but the least real desire after that which is good, it is impossible for Him to be indifferent to it. The need of atonement is not spoken of here, nor indeed, as we shall see, in the whole psalm, but the provision of atonement only shows how thoroughly God is for the soul that turns to him. But there is none the less a condition required upon man’s part: "the humble will He guide in judgment; the humble He will teach His way." This is as right as the other, and it accounts for our being such poor learners at the best. Humility is the necessary condition of learning in every department of knowledge. To know that we know not marks and makes the true inquirer. And above all must we come to God, not as critics or philosophers, but as babes and weaklings: and this is the plainest judgment of reason itself. Yet this does not mean that He disregards or confounds the faculties He has given. He is light; and He leads in the light. Even so, we have to remember, not our littleness only, but our sinfulness, which tends largely to pervert reason itself. But God does not on this account set aside these enfeebled powers; He does not in this sense "lead the blind by a way they know not" -which is true of providential guidance only: here, on the other hand, He "opens the blind eyes", purges and rectifies the vision of those that wait on Him; and even the depths that transcend our knowledge are seen not as if filled with a fog that shuts out vision, but as the infiniteness between the stars, where the sight itself -welcomed while it lasts -fails through feebleness, because of the greatness of what it surveys.

For "the humble will He guide in judgment" -discernment, that is, of difference. The understanding is opened; as it was said to the disciples, "then opened He their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures." Ignorance is not for us the "mother of devotion"; no, nor the child either: it is true that for superstition it is mother and child both; but sanctification is through the truth, and therefore by what is known as truth. Ah, in this way, we may easily indeed dishonor our faculties, and dishonor God in them; yea, dishonor Him of whom it has been said, "He shall lead you into all truth" (Joh 16:13). So then as Christians to doubt our capacity for this, is to doubt the promise of Christ, and the power of the Holy "Spirit of truth."

The moral character of such guidance distinguishes it from the mere working of the natural intellect. "The knowledge of the holy" it is that "is understanding" (Pro 9:10). And so here: "all the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth toward those who observe His covenant and His testimonies."

Here indeed was a serious difficulty for the Israelite -the nature of that "covenant" under which he was with God. The law, as the apostle declares (2Co 3:1-18) and the experience of every honest-hearted man confirms, was but the "ministration of death" and "condemnation." None could face its requirements without the cry which we find in the Psalms themselves, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." (Psa 143:2.) If then the law as thus confessed could justify no one, plainly faith, to find courage or comfort at all, must draw this from the foresight of Him whose image was in the sacrifices which the law itself ordained. The believers of those days were, as we are told, "kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed" (Gal 3:23), with a certain knowledge surely, though variable and fluctuating, of the grace that was to come. This we shall be able to estimate better in the future. Meanwhile the "covenant" -whatever supplement might by and bye be made to it -remained the expression of relationship to Jehovah, their heart able even to delight in the law as holy, just, and good, spite of the certainty that by it they could not stand before God. The condition was an anomalous one; but the practical state of many a child of God today is not less anomalous, and depends too upon the same thing, the mingling together of contradictory elements, which will not really mingle, -a law by which God" can by no means clear the guilty," and a grace in which He "justifieth the ungodly."

For us, however, the perplexity is gone, for the old covenant is gone; and for Israel, when once more they become the people of God, it will be under that new covenant which is grace absolute and unclouded. The remnant, however, for whom these psalms make specific provision will inherit the perplexities of preceding generations, and here they will find how mercy has anticipated their need, and furnished them with the "steps" needed by which they will be able to pass the "slough of despond," and reach the firmer ground beyond. They will find here expressions of confidence in God on the part of those owning themselves sinners in the fullest way, and who could speak, as in this case, at the same time of the "covenant." They will have also -as David had not -Jeremiah’s announcement of a future "new covenant."

Whatever the darkness, the faith that clings to God makes no mistake, nor can He be wanting to it. And so this verse itself declares. "Mercy" is pledged to, as it is needed by, those who in their hearts "observe Jehovah’s covenant and His testimonies." Holiness is thoroughly maintained, while grace is manifested. "Mercy" leads to and introduces "truth"; and "all the paths of Jehovah" declare these things unitedly. "Mercy and truth" thus "met together", "righteousness and peace" will "kiss each other." The eighty-fifth psalm shows this accomplished.

It is in confidence then that the prayer is uttered: "for Thy name’s sake, Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great." Great sin is great need; great sin pardoned is great grace; consciousness of great sin pardoned makes the heart love much. All this the Lord has Himself shown out in the case of the sinful woman in the Pharisee’s house. The fullest gospel we thus find to be the holiest gospel. Grace we see to be the effectual conqueror of sin. Thus, even, the Lord makes known and glorifies His Name in its forgiveness.

We must not expect the Psalms to go beyond this. Justification and the place in Christ were as yet unknown: even in the New Testament we have to wait for the apostle Paul and his gospel to find these developed; but the consideration of what is involved in all this will more naturally come before us when we reach the nearest point of view from which to contemplate it: and that will be found in the thirty-second psalm.

The fear of Jehovah is the next thing dwelt upon, and is that to which the knowledge of His grace, where real, will surely lead. "There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared." We might imagine, perhaps, that it would be rather said "loved;" but we may be assured that there is no mistake. The intimacy to which grace leads -the knowledge of God thus acquired by one brought to Him -dispels, of course, not produces, slavish fear. And so it is written: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1Jn 4:18): he is like a scholar with an ill-learned lesson, not perfect in that which God in the gospel has been teaching us earnestly.

On the other hand, the light and flippant carelessness by which some would show us their intimacy with God, their knowledge of His grace, proves to absolute demonstration their ignorance of what they profess. He who has seen the Alps but at a distance, may think but little of their majestic height. The nearer we approach, the more they put on grandeur; at their very foot, they tower up in masses which scale the heavens, and make us realize our utter insignificance. How much more, then, will the awful majesty of God be felt by one who has stood in His presence! The little reverence shown today, even by Christians, the freedom of their bold speculations, their critical proficiency in sacred things, the prominence assigned to the "human element" everywhere, reveal plainly enough the citizen of the world’s cities, rather than the one who in the stillness of the desert or the mountain top has drawn near, with unshod feet, to God. And thus the man who professedly has the fear of the Lord, cares little to be guided "in the way HE chooseth." He must walk, as he recognizes, in ways morally right; nay, what is this must be estimated from a general Christian stand-point, which means perhaps even something somewhat higher than the average conscience of the special Christian community to which he is attached; but "the way HE chooseth," -how little is this anywhere regarded! how little is even the lack of it known!

Take the Word as guiding: how generally -almost universally -is it too accepted just as interpreted by the people among whom we are (I may say) thrown; how few venture to differ from the fashion in which it is read by these! And the personal guidance day by day as to the details of life, how little, it is to be feared, is this found by "watching daily at the gates" of infinite Wisdom, "waiting at the posts of her doors" (Pro 8:34)! Yet of such is it said that the man is "blessed." For each of us there is individual guidance: God loving to have us thus apart for Himself; to each one of us the Lord says, "Follow thou Me!" Real communion with the Lord involves this necessarily.

The connection of the next verse with this seems to be what stamps it with its number 6, which must here speak of mastery. For Israel the possession of the land was originally to be won from the Canaanites, and much of it slipped shortly out of their hands after being thus won. Philistines and Amorites pushed back Dan into the mountains; Hazor became after Joshua’s time the seat of the kingdom of another Jabin; Reuben lost his cities to Moab. After David and Solomon, the broken kingdom began gradually to yield piecemeal to its foes, until first Assyria and then Babylon carried the whole people captive. After the return, but a fragment of the land was repossessed. The Assyrian captives did not return at all. Samaria was schismatic and hostile. Galilee remained characteristically "Galilee of the Gentiles." Then at last came One who would have gathered them, and they would not, and they bought Aceldama with the price of their Lord’s betrayal. Again they were scattered, and the whole world has been to them since, according to the terms of their dread purchase, "a burial-ground for strangers." Thus the possession of the land has been for Israel more plainly than for any other people, a question of mastery, but in which the fear of Jehovah was ever the real condition. Did they fear Him, their fear was upon their enemies. When finally their heart turns to the Lord, and the veil upon it is removed, then the word will be fulfilled, "I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor" -of self-judgment -"for a door of hope" (Hos 2:15).

All this has an application for us also, and a present application, just as Ephesians, interpreting the book of Joshua, has shown us a present possession of our land which is to be made good by faith, and against the might of banded enemies. Israel’s history has here its solemn instruction for us. Never yet has the full extent of the divine gift been realized by them, and for the most part they came sadly short. Have Christians done better as to their spiritual inheritance? Yet not for discouragement, but for encouragement, would one urge this. "There remaineth very much land to be possessed"; and the promise here is strictly individual: what may not faith, in any one of us, even now attain to? what mines of treasure unworked, what fields ready to be harvested, await the man earnest enough to press on after them, whole-hearted enough to take possession!

And again the word pursues us here: "The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him; and His covenant, to show it to them." Think of being, as it were, the bosom friends of God, to whom He can speak freely of what is hidden from the rest of men! Here is surely complete blessing. Herein is communion perfected. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets." (Amo 3:7.) Is it of Him if we should have to say, "We see not our signs; there is not a prophet any more"? (Psa 74:9.) Is there no connection with this when the apostle exhorts us all to "covet to prophesy"? (1Co 14:39.)

4. And now we are to face the way of trial. The world is unfailingly that, and Satan himself the sifter of God’s wheat. Here we find it, and find it, spite of all that has been said, a very real thing. Indeed it must be felt; for trial that is not felt is not trial; and God has a work to be wrought in us by this, "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope" (Rom 5:3-4). And James urges, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience; but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (Jas 1:2-4.)

"Sweet," then indeed, "are the uses of adversity," if they can accomplish for us anything like this. And we see clearly what the great use is. "Patience" -the subjection of our wills, "man’s weakness waiting upon God," is the unfailing argument to bring Him in. Only to learn this, this is to be perfect and entire! How easy, one would think, if this be all, just to abide in the place of nothingness, and let God care and minister and show His wisdom and His power and love! Blessed it is, and should be easy; but here it is we prove the will that works in us, the lack of faith which allows will to work. Faith is, in all of us, the great worker of all good: it is no wonder if God try it, call for it, ordain the path to be such as shall require it constantly; while yet He encourages, sustains, answers it with a love which more and more makes the experience of the way an experience that works hope. "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

The pathway of the remnant of Judah in that day towards which prophecy so often turns is one of peculiar trial. "It is the time of Jacob’s trouble," revealed thus as special discipline: a time of trouble "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Mat 24:21). We can understand therefore the character of what follows here, even while the first words declare the blessing it is working for them: "Mine eyes are constantly toward Jehovah; for He shall bring my feet out of the net." This constant look upwards: how much blessing does it import, whatever the stress of circumstance that produces it! The net is at the feet, and yet the eyes are not there, but constantly above. A brighter object is before them than the earth can furnish, and the heart is steadied and brightened by it. The feet also are better kept than by any possible human wisdom: "He shall bring" rings cheerily out from a man not ignorant of his danger, but who has learned how much more positive he may be in the third person than in the first.

Yet the evil presses hard, and matters seem as if God were looking away: "Turn thee unto me, and be gracious to me: for I am solitary and afflicted." Sorrow individualizes us all, and that is part of the good of it: for thus grace and God become individualized also. The evil presses for attention. God suffers it to be felt, and even to increase: enlarged distresses -when working under the good hand of God -purify and enlarge the heart. This is by no means their necessary effect, however: apart from Him, they may harden and narrow it. But then apart from Him, prosperity will do the same: nothing is good, save as He works in it and through it for good.

In result, man is sifted and known: oneself, in whom affliction and travail connect themselves ever more closely with the sins of which the soul is ever more conscious. The enemies also are there, multiplied and violent. Jehovah is besought to regard it all, and not to make ashamed the faith which can find refuge only in Himself.

5. Two verses express finally the principle upon which the blessing comes. Integrity, uprightness, faith on the soul’s part; the redemption from His hand who alone can effect it. In the last verse the speaker links the redemption of Israel with his own.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)

I lift up my life

The phrase "lift up my life" is a metaphor. Possible meanings are 1) the writer is giving himself to Yahweh, which means he is completely depending on Yahweh. AT: "I give myself to you" or 2) he is offering prayer and adoration to Yahweh. AT: "I worship and adore you" (See: Metaphor)

Do not let me be humiliated

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Do not let my enemies humiliate me" (See: Active or Passive)

rejoice triumphantly over me

"rejoice in triumph over me." The phrase "over me" implies that his enemies have defeated him and stand above in victory. AT: "defeat me and rejoice about it" (See: Idiom)

May no one who hopes in you be disgraced

"Do not let those who hope in you be disgraced." Disgrace could come from being defeated by their enemies. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Do not let enemies defeat those who hope in you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)

who hopes in you

"who trusts you"

act treacherously

"act deceitfully" or "act with trickery"

without cause

"without a reason"

translationWords

psalm

David

Yahweh

life

God

trust

humiliate

joy

hope

shame

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

I will lift up my soul I will direct my heart.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.