Psalm 25

Psa 25:1

SUPERSCRIPTION: "OF DAVID".

See Lesson, Acrostics.

HISTORICAL SETTING: Poss 2Sa 15, considering vv 2, 3, 7, 13, 15, 18, 19, and 22.

I LIFT UP MY SOUL: Deu 24:15, mg. The heave-offering (Exo 25:2)? Or is it the lifting up of the "gate" of my soul (as in Psa 24:7,9)? Furthermore, a ct with Psa 24:4.

Psa 25:5

GUIDE ME IN YOUR TRUTH AND TEACH ME: "When the believer has begun with trembling feet to walk in the way of the Lord, he asks to be still led onward like a little child upheld by its parent's helping hand, and he craves to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth. Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance, and desired to be still in the Lord's school: four times over in two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace" (CHS).

MY HOPE IS IN YOU ALL DAY LONG: "Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us" (CHS).

Psa 25:6

REMEMBER, O LORD, YOUR GREAT MERCY: God is besought to remember His covenants of Promise 1,000 (4,000?) years old, but (v 7): Forget my sins of 40 (4?) years ago! Cp Psa 103:14,18.

Psa 25:7

The plain confession of sin in vv 7,11,18 creates a problem, which can perhaps be answered in one of three ways:

Just as there are certain phrases which cannot apply with strict literalness to David (eg v 5: "On thee do I wait ALL the day"; v 15: "Mine eyes are EVER toward the Lord"), but which apply easily to Christ, so also there are vv like these confessions of sin which do not apply lit to Christ, but readily enough to David.
Vv 7,11, and 18 ref not to the personal sins of Jesus (not possible, of course!), but to the burden of human "sin", ie sinful nature, which he bore as a redeeming sacrifice for his brethren. This idea is expressed 12 times in Isa 53.
These exceptional vv do not refer to Christ in person, but to those in Christ, who are after all a part of his "body".

Psa 25:11

THE SAKE OF YOUR NAME: All appeals for mercy rest upon faith in the attributes which are involved in the name of Yahweh (Exo 34:5-7), as of course upon His covenants of promise.

Psa 25:14

THE LORD CONFIDES IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM: And, by impl, not in them that do not fear him! Cp also vv 10,12; Psa 91:1; Isa 66:2; Joh 7:17; 15:15; 1Co 2:9,10; Gen 18:17; Amo 3:7; Deu 29:29; Dan 2:22; Pro 3:32. A lovely theme! (The word "secret" is derived from the Heb for "couch", and thus the confidential talk of those reclining on it.)

Psa 25:16

The LXX of this v is very much like Mat 17:15. Did the man whose son had seizures consciously ref to Psa 25?

Psa 25:18

LOOK UPON MY AFFLICTION AND MY DISTRESS AND TAKE AWAY ALL MY SINS: "It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, we must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for He counteth the hairs of your head; and your great sorrows you may commit to Him, for He holdeth the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you. But we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power. The special lesson of the text is this: that we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, 'Look upon mine affliction and my pain', but the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided, plain -- 'Forgive all my sins'. Many sufferers would have put it, 'Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins.' But David does not say so" (CHS).

Psa 25:22

Differs from the acrostic pattern described above, and is prob an addition made to the psalm in Hezekiah's day. It turns a personal plea into a prayer for the whole nation. Cp Psa 14:7. Other poss examples of this: Psa 9:6; 31:21-24; 39:12,13; 51:18,19; 57:7-11.