Psalm 25:1-10; Remember Me, O God

"Of David.
1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them 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 day long.
6 Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, 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 decrees."

Introduction

This pleasant Psalm is the one of the (nine) acrostic Psalms, even though not every letter of the Hebrew alphabet begins a line. This slight irregularity should not obscure the point that an acrostic wants to make: it covers a subject "from a to z" as we would say. In this case the subject is the guidance of God or the way that God remembers the Psalmist. Though the enemies are in view and seem to be in a position to put the Psalmist to shame, his confident prayer is that God would lead him, remember him, and therefore not allow him to be exulted over by his enemies. This Psalm breathes an air of quiet confidence and hopefulness in the goodness, covenant faithfulness and the guidance of God. As such it dovetails neatly with the Scripture readings for the week, where the faithfulness of the people (Deut. 30) is supplemented by acts of charity (Luke 10) and the apostolic blessing on a congregation (Col. 1).

So many of the Psalms are what I would call "orienting" literature--that is, they seek to challenge the reader to place trust in God, to "orient" his/her life to God. OIn doing this the Psalmist helpfully builds on a basic principle of human psychology--that the most important thing is to point oneself in the right direction.ther things will follow once that orientation is established. In our Psalm for today we have many individual points we could make about the soul's orientation toward God, but I will only mention three briefly.

I. To You, O Lord, I Lift Up My Soul (v. 1)

This is where the Psalm begins, and where we should begin in our life today. We lift up our souls to God. "Lift up your hearts." "We lift them up to the Lord." That is an exhortation we hear and participate in each week. We incline ourselves to God because we realize that we have no good other than which flows from the goodness of God. The brief Psalm 123 is a wonderful commentary on this thought:

"To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us," (Ps. 123:1-2).

We have visual illustrations of people who "look to the hand" of others in life. Servants look to masters; children look to parents; so we look to the Lord our God. As the hymn says, "All good gifts around us/ Are sent from heav'n above./ Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord/ For all his love." Lift up your heart to God today, and let God take it.

II. Lead Me in Thy Truth (v. 5)

Once our hearts are lifted up to God, we are ready to be led in truth. So the Psalmist prays, "Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long," (v. 5). It is a beautiful thought and one that is instructive for us. We do not see the truth of our lives or the truth of the world clearly without guidance. So many complex things greet us as we arise every day that without someone to "sort it out" for us, without someone to guide us in the proper path, we live sterile and uncomprehending lives. For the basic principle of faith for us today is not that today is like yesterday, but that God is doing new things in our midst. Divine creativity bursts forth with the flowering of the garden each year, from the common rose to the beautiful Crocosmia 'Lucifer' (sorry, one of my favorite flowers in Oregon!). This efflorescence in the natural sphere is symbolic of the flowering of the soul that awaits us each day, if we but orient ourselves to God and ask for divine guidance along the way. God is our leader and teacher. Those of us who teach are especially needful of a teacher, for unless our words are winged with sagittarian wisdom, they fall flat and useless at our feet. Thus, we move from an orientation to God to an earnest prayer to be led in God's way.

III. Remember Me (v. 7)

When all is said and done, however, what we need most of all from God is not simply guidance or leadership, but remembrance. It is not as if we expect or think that God will forget; it is more of a desire or longing we have that our best days and best ways are in God's mind as God thinks of us. Of course, the images are anthropomorphic; we speak of God as we comfortably use words to speak about the affairs of our daily lives, even though God is "beyond" our words and our thoughts. Yet, we are comforted in the fact that God's steadfast love, or covenant faithfulness, will never end and that it will be directed towards us.

The spirit of Psalm 25 is similar to that in Romans 8. Paul says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" And he continues:

"He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (Rom. 8:32).

The Psalmist truly believes that God is working on his behalf as he lives his life. Why not, then, lift up the heart to God today, to pray to God for guidance and divine teaching, to ask God to remember us? This Psalm is like a vigorous workout in the gym; after it is over our body brims with energy and we are ready to face whatever comes our way. Thanks be to God!

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