PSALM 25 Reading Guide June 23-29
PSALM 25 2 PSALM 25 1 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.
PSALM 25 3 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.
PSALM 25 4 DAY 1 Read through Psalm 25 once writing down what you find interesting, what you find helpful, and what you don t fully understand. Read through the notes on Psalm 25 in the ESV Study Bible*. Write at least one paragraph highlighting what you learned from the study notes. According to the ESV Study Bible, Psalm 25 is a lament, in which individual members of the worshiping assembly ask God for help in their various troubles. The Psalm does not end with the confidence often found in other laments. Instead, as Commentator Derek Kidner explains, the Psalm emphasizes trusting in God and waiting on God. To wait is to accept his time and therefore His wisdom. The word for [trust] in the Psalm suggests a certain tenseness: the trust is eager, waiting in hope rather than resignation. The hope is unfulfilled at the close, but the waiting continues. Perhaps the Psalm is thereby all the more relevant to those who are not granted the radiant assurance that breaks out in other Psalms. 1 DAY 2 Read Psalm 25 again. Now read verses 16-21. Based on those verses, write down your understanding of David s situation when he wrote the Psalm. Read back through Psalm 25 again, noting the places that David s prayer further support your understanding of David s situation when he wrote the Psalm. Though David s prayers are unanswered, he hopes in God. Write down some of the specific reasons David trusts in God and waits for God to answer his prayers. Edward Mote, through his hymn My Hope is Built, expresses a similar trust in God: When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest upon unchanging grace; In ev ry rough and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil. However, Mote understood something David couldn t: God s steadfast love was ultimately shown to God s people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, while David could trust in God s oath and covenant, he couldn t know what Mote did the gloriousness of trusting in Christ s blood as the surety of God s salvation. 1 D. Kidner, Psalms, 1-72. (Downers Grove, Ill.: 1973), 117.
PSALM 25 5 His oath, his covenant, his blood Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Chris the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. Write out a prayer to Jesus expressing the reasons you have to trust in him. DAY 3 Read Psalm 25 again. Commentator Derek Kidner says David expresses three dominant concerns in Psalm 25: the pressure of enemies, the need of guidance, and the burden of guilt. 2 Consider your life. Which one of those three themes represents an area that you need to trust God in right now? Read the section that corresponds to that specific area: Pressure of Enemies, verses 2-3 Need for Guidance, verses 4-5 Burden of Guilt, verses 6-7 Now, spend some time meditating on those verses (for more on meditating on Scripture, see Psalm 7, day 3). As you do, answer these three questions about those verses: How does this show me something about God to praise? How does this show me something about myself to confess? How does this show me something I need to ask God for? Based on how you ve answered those questions, write out a prayer to God using verse one as the first line of your prayer: To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 2 Ibid., p. 115.
PSALM 25 6 DAY 4 Read Psalm 25 again. The Psalm ends with David making his personal plea applicable for all God s people: Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Pick one of the three themes in this Psalm (see Day 3, above) that applies to a need you see at Vintage Church. Based on what David wrote in Psalm 25, write out a prayer to God, asking him to help Vintage Church in those specific areas. If you would like to do so, send that prayer to the lead pastor at your local Vintage Church. DAY 5 Read through Psalm 25 twice. Write out at least two paragraphs reflecting on what you ve learned about God, yourself, and others from Psalm 25. Write out at least one thing you hope to apply to your life from Psalm 25. Spend at least 15 minutes sharing what you wrote with a trusted friend or family member. If they read Psalm 25 this week, ask them to do the same. End your time in prayer, thanking God for what he taught you this week. * Purchasing an ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2008.) will aid you in your understanding of the Psalms. The first day s reading each week assumes you will have access to the notes in the ESV Study Bible. The ESV Study Bible is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published. It will help you understand not just the Psalms, but also the rest of the Bible in a deeper way. You can either buy the Bible (amazon.com, search: ESV Study Bible) or purchase online access to the notes at www.esvbible.org. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 2013 Elliot Grudem.