Psalm 25--Teach Me Your Paths

Psalm 25
English Standard Version

Teach Me Your Paths
Of David.
25 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
    let me not be put to shame;
    let not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
    they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
    teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long.

6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
    and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For your name's sake, O LORD,
    pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the LORD?
    Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
13 His soul shall abide in well-being,
    and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
    and he makes known to them his covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
    for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
    for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
    bring me out of my distresses.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
    and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider how many are my foes,
    and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
    Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
    for I wait for you.

22 Redeem Israel, O God,
    out of all his troubles.

---

That song is the first thing that came to my head when I read this psalm, so I wanted to share it with you first as it contains many of the words of this psalm.  David starts this psalm with praise before making his petitions (a somewhat different format for him, as often he got to the end of the psalm and there was a "but" that turned his focus to God and he would choose to sing praise to Him in spite of his circumstances).  David does then jump in with a request to not have his enemies triumph over him, but David speaks with certainty that all those who wait upon the LORD will not be put to shame, but those who are wantonly treacherous will all be put to shame before Him.

Now we see a different kind of request from David, one I love, and where this psalm gets its title--"Make Your ways known to me.  Teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth and teach me."  David's reason for making this request?  "For you are the God of my salvation, therefore I wait all the day long."  Wow!  David has come to a new place.  Yes, he's loved to talk about God and His salvation before and wanted to see God's salvation personally.  He has delighted to spend time with the LORD before, but this is different, David is now asking God to teach him everything there is to know about that salvation, and that he will wait all day long if he has to for the LORD to reveal it to him.

David cries out for the LORD to remember His mercy that David needs (mercy is not getting what you deserve).  Normally David cries out for justice and for God to avenge him and to defeat his enemies, but David sees himself here as a sinner who needs God to willingly forget David's sins.  Why does David ask this?  Because he knows it to be consistent with God's character and nature--specifically His steadfast love and His goodness.  

2 Peter 3:9
English Standard Version
​9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

David says that it's the goodness of the LORD that causes Him to instruct the sinners in the Way (I capitalize this because I think this is what Jesus is referring to when He said, "I am the Way....").  It is also God's goodness that leads Him to teach His righteous ways to the humble.  The next line is interesting to me though because David says, "All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies."  Who is that?  No one can keep the Mosaic covenant, so is that the covenant that David it talking about?  I don't think so--at least, not in the way that the Pharisees would think about it.  I think David understands that being has to proceed doing and that the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 17:7 leads to Exodus 6:7 (and many other verses like it in the book of Exodus) and the conversation that God has with Moses and the people in Exodus 19 that proceeds that giving of the Law that God wants to change their identity and nature--then comes the doing.  God makes many "I will" statements upon Himself and then says, "If you are really my people, then you will obey my commandments."  That's consistent with what we see in the New Testament from Jesus in the Gospels and from the authors of the New Testament epistles.  Doing never proceeds or produces being, but being always proceeds and produces doing.  So then David says that those who have been changed by the LORD and His salvation will both be God's covenant people and will keep God's Law, not out of obligation, but out of love (though we know we cannot do it perfectly, which is why David's first request was for God's mercy and for Him to choose to forget the sins that David had committed).  David is in no way claiming that any man other than Jesus can fully keep the Law.  How do I know that David is probably referring to the Abrahamic covenant of being God's people?  Because David refers to the LORD's people possessing and inheriting the Promised Land.  That's a promise that was made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants that proceeded the Law.  It's true that after this we'll see the people taken away from the Land as a consequence of them breaking the covenant, but the land will always belong to the children of Israel as an everlasting covenant because God has sworn by Himself to give it to them.  That is why David will claim boldly that it is the name of the LORD on the line here-.In this case though the inheritance and "land" that we are promised is even greater than that of the land of Canaan--it is the very kingdom of heaven.

In case we missed it the first time, David once again cries out for the LORD's mercy--this time saying that it is for the LORD's own name that He needs to act.  We see this kind of conversation with Moses and God quite often--the nations would accuse God of being malevolent or not being powerful enough to save His people if the people known and called by His name were led out of Egypt and promised a salvation and inheritance and God simply led them into the wilderness to kill them all and let their enemies have victory over them.  David is extending that same logic and argument now to the spiritual Exodus we have had and the greater Passover and Salvation that has been provided.  How much more than will the name of the LORD be on the line if those whom He has called out of sin and darkness and promised the kingdom of His marvelous light cannot be kept and delivered unto that salvation because their sins could never really be forgiven and they were still under condemnation and wrath?  That wouldn't make any sense.  What kind of a salvation is that, and what kind of God would make a people for Himself and make a covenant and promise to them that He could not keep?

We often see the LORD say that He would save Israel not because they deserved it, but because of His name and the plan of salvation that He had purposed from the very beginning--a salvation that none of them could deserve or earn.  It is a salvation based in His goodness and mercy (his "lovingkindness").  So, David cries out once again for the LORD to pardon his guilt, for he knows he is guilty if he were judged solely on his own works.

David says it is because he fears the LORD (a reverence that leads to obedience) that he desires to know and learn God's righteous ways.  He wants to know what is pleasing to Him.  God teaching David His ways is evidence to David that God has accepted Him and that he has been justified, for why would God bother with instructing those who stood condemned before Him in the way of righteousness?  No amount of righteousness would change the verdict unless the Judge chooses to have mercy and not count the offender's sins against him.  The Law does not change for the one who does "righteous" acts after committing murder and adultery (if this psalm comes after David has committed adultery with Bathsheba).  David then says something that we haven't heard since the book of Genesis.  God has chosen to be friends with us.  Now that is something amazing!  David even goes so far as to say that the LORD makes His people know His covenant--He did not make us discover it for ourselves, but He gave it to us through special revelation since we would never figure it out on our own.  David says that His eyes will be fixed on the LORD of His salvation that has plucked him out of the net that had ensnared him--David who was trapped could do nothing to save himself.  The LORD had to act on his behalf, and David didn't deserve it because David walked into that trap all on his own and deserved to stay there.

I want to go back for second though to where David says that God calls us friends, for it reminds me of another passage not out of the book of Genesis, but out of the book of John.  Compare the words of David against these words of Christ that He spoke to His disciples in His last days before the cross.


John 15:12-17
English Standard Version
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
We have been called His friends because He has revealed His ways of righteousness to us and has done so by His own choice.  Because of this identity that we have in Him, we are told that if we really are His friends and really love Him, we will obey Him and keep His commandments.  That sounds pretty much identical to me.  Jesus reminds us then that the whole Law is summed up in the word "love."  "These things I command you, so that you love one another [as I have loved you]."  We have been chosen and appointed [as ambassadors of the King and His Kingdom] for the purpose of "bearing fruit" and "abiding."  Note that it is by the passive action of abiding that that which we think is active, "bearing fruit," takes place.  We can do nothing to make ourselves bear fruit if we are dead, nor can we stop ourselves from bearing fruit if we are abiding in the Vine that is Christ.

Back to the book of Psalms now.  The end of David's psalm sounds more like what we normally expect at the beginning, and the beginning of this psalm sounds more like what we typically see at the end.  David cries out to the LORD because he is lonely and afflicted.  He has nowhere else to turn in his time of distress.  The LORD is the one who is his friend in all places and all times.  His salvation is sure and based on His unfailing, unconditional love, so do you see how David's argument as been built here.  It is like he is saying, "God, I need you to be who I know you to be, even though I can't feel it right now.  I need you now more than ever."  We'll see David tell God in other psalms that He needs the LORD as much or more than he needs air or water or food.  David cries out to the LORD to see Him in his time of distress and to come to his rescue once again and to be there with him and to give him comfort and aid.

David ends where he started, asking God to remember to put his foes to shame but to not let David, who belongs to Him, to be put to shame because of the name and the character of the LORD that were on the line.  Then David asks for the LORD to preserve him through integrity and uprightness.  What a great request!  Knowing this to be the case, David by faith says that he will wait on the LORD's help and salvation (because he knows it is on its way).  While David has cried out for personal salvation through most of the psalm, he ends with a request for all of the people called by the name of the LORD (the nation of Israel), "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles."  This again is a request based in the character and nature of God who is the Redeemer of His people.  I wonder how much the Spirit revealed to David about the salvation that was going to be provided not just for Israel, but for the Gentiles as well.


Hebrews 2:1-4
English Standard Version

Warning Against Neglecting Salvation
2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.