Psalm 25 by Joe Ellis — July 21, 2024

Let’s see if we can get a sense of what it’s like for David to pray this opening verse: 

1 In you, Lord my God, 

I put my trust.

Can you remember a time when you felt most at rest? Most safe? Most secure? Most in your own skin? Most at home? — What comes to mind? 

Where were you? Was anyone with you? What was it about that time that was so comforting and secure? Where do you feel that in your body — to be so safe and secure?

I wonder if that’s something of the sort of rest, and trust and security that David drew from as he began to pray during a time of great vulnerability, great uncertainty.

 In you, Lord my God, 

I put my trust. 

See if you can hold onto that safe, secure presence as we continue to walk through this Psalm. A sense of safe secure trust, makes it safe to bring his vulnerability before God. He prays:

2 I trust in you; 

do not let me be put to shame, 

nor let my enemies triumph over me. 

3 No one who hopes in you 

will ever be put to shame, 

but shame will come on those 

who are treacherous without cause. 

David brings his troubles before God. He comes to God, in whom he trusts completely, and David prays: “Do not let me put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.”

Just as you brought to mind a moment when you felt at peace and at rest — can you recall to mind a moment when life was hard? Maybe it's something you are going through right now? Maybe it happened long ago? Maybe it’s a moment when you felt attacked? Maybe it was just within your own mind, or maybe it was something going on outside you? But think of a situation when you felt scared, like something incredibly important was about to be stripped from you.

As you bring that situation to mind, what it's like to pray these words in your heart?: “I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame.” 

I’m curious, can you pray those words of David for yourself, in that moment of difficulty?

 “I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame.”

The normal response when you are threatened with shame is to run and hide.

What is it like to come to God with this situation that you would rather just hide away?

It's not easy. 

As David prays for support and help from God to not let him come to shame, consider what Bible scholar Gordon Fee, says about shame in the Old Testament: 

“The Old Testament view of shame, as repeatedly expressed in the Psalms, is most often tied to one’s relationship with God. When one of God’s righteous ones cries out not to be brought to shame but rather to be vindicated (“saved”) by Him. God’s own honour is at stake. For such a person to be brought to shame reflects unfavourably on God; hence the cry is always filled with trust and hope that God will therefore vindicate the one who has trusted in him.” 

That’s how David prays from this situation that threatens to shame him. — he prays  as if God’s reputation and ours are bound up together. If we feel like hiding, he’s there with us in our hiding place. Strange to imagine, isn’t it..

Imagine, David had this deep sense that God’s fate was bound up with his own. David had this sense that if he was brought to shame, God would fall into shame alongside him. And that if David was saved from whatever threatened him, God’s reputation would be preserved as well. David relationship with God was such that he could rest int he fact that his fate was bound together with God’s.

This sense of ourselves being wrapped up with God only deepens as you read John’s Gospel. In one of His last conversations with His disciples, Jesus said “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Jesus has bound His fate up with yours. He’s made His home in you. The shame that falls on you, falls also on Him.

 When the Apostle Paul was in prison for preaching the Gospel, he wrote to his friends in Phillipi church, saying — “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”

Paul knew that Christ had bound Himself to him so deeply that he could not be put to shame with whatever happened to him. If Paul was executed in prison — he would go to be with Christ. If he is set free — then he gets to go on living for Christ. 

Imagine, Paul in prison — praying whether I’m executed here and now, or set free: 

“I trust in you; 

do not let me be put to shame.”

Hearing Paul talk about this deep trust that God will not bring him to shame, no matter what happens can make you feel like you need to be super human in your prayer life. But amazingly both David, and Paul in his letters, show us that they’re not superhuman. That’s, of course, why they’re praying. David knows he needs help. Listen for how David’s sense of his need for help comes across in this prayer. He prays: 

4 Show me your ways, Lord, 

teach me your paths. 

5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, 

for you are God my Saviour, 

and my hope is in you all day long. 

6 Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, 

for they are from of old. 

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth 

and my rebellious ways; 

according to your love remember me, 

for you, Lord, are good. 

8 Good and upright is the Lord; 

therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 

9 He guides the humble in what is right 

and teaches them his way. 

10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful 

toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. 

11 For the sake of your name, Lord, 

forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

There is another way of viewing the implications of what I was describing before about shame: if God’s fate is bound up with mine — if my shame brings God to shame — then we are both hooped! After all, I’m one of the last that God should stake his reputation on. But when I hear David’s prayer, I can begin to be honest about my shortcomings. Did you notice David’s honesty about his own shortcomings? Not in a ‘woe-is-me’ way, let me beat myself up sort of way. But as a way of naming to God that I am certainly not perfect and I need you help! And also thank you for forgiving us when we screw up — thank you for not taking revenge! Thank you for not grinding us into the ground —But instead, You are our guide, You are our teacher and instructor. You show us the way forward. 

I experience this prayer to be like a soothing balm, especially in those moments when I experience a deep sense of shame. Remember, shame makes you want to run and hide, like Adam and Eve did when they realized they were naked after eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden. Who can’t relate to this instinct to run and hide when shame creeps into our hearts and moves us to feel naked. But instead of running and hiding, David’s shows us how to stay in God’s safe presence especially when we’ve missed the mark — whether a memory from the long past or in the present. That’s the gift of confession of sin — we get to hear those words, “You are forgiven in Jesus’ name — you don’t need to keep hiding.” 

And God doesn’t leave us there, he leads us on. David prays: “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me.” 

It's good to be able to confess my shortcomings, but it's another thing to confess my shortcomings and also know that the Lord is going to help me grow.  He’s going to teach me. 

And not only that, but He is such a tender and generous teacher. He’s not some rigid task master — but he’s a loving parent, taking His child by the hand and showing us the way forward.

Jesus promised, “I won’t leave you as orphans.”

And later:  “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;”

David trusts that the Lord will Be his guide, and then David expresses trust that God is guiding him into good places! That the end of this strange road will wind up in a really good place to land. David says:  

12 Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? 

He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. 

13 They will spend their days in prosperity, 

and their descendants will inherit the land. 

14 The Lord confides in those who fear him; 

he makes his covenant known to them. 

15 My eyes are ever on the Lord, 

for only he will release my feet from the snare. 

David’s trust comes out bright and clear — despite the difficulty of present circumstances, the Lord leads those who trust Him into good places. 

Despite present difficulties, despite a present sense of shame, David invites us to trust the Lord will lead us into good places.

That’s what Jesus was getting at in His the opening of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: 

Blessings on the poor in spirit! The Kingdom of heaven is yours.

Blessings on the mourners! You’re going to be comforted.

Blessings on the meek! You’re going to inherit the earth.

Blessings on people who hunger and thirst for God’s justice! You’re 

going to be satisfied.

Blessings on the merciful! You’ll receive mercy yourselves.

Blessings on the pure in heart! You will see God.

Blessings on the peacemakers! You’ll be called God’s children. 

Blessings on people who are persecuted because of God’s way! The 

kingdom of heaven belongs to you.

Through present difficulties, God is leading you into good places.

In Ephesians, Paul tells us that God will never abandon us, but has given us the Spirit as His personal guarantee that He will lead us into God’s good future. Paul says:

“In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”

God is leading you and me into His good future, and He has given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge of that inheritance. This is where He leads you. Nothing can take this away. No matter what sense of disorientation you experience in the present moment — God is leading you into His Kingdom. God has given you His Spirit as a promise and guarantee of your inheritance — and your inheritance is in the very Kingdom of God.

I wonder, can you rest for a moment in this trust? That no matter how disoriented you are in the present moment, no matter how deep a sense of shame spirals you into feeling lost, stuck or hopeless — God is there to not only forgive but to guide. He is leading You into a future that is good, a future that is secure, a future in His Kingdom — this future belongs to You.

David then returns to where he began — a cry for help in times of trouble. Having spoken his trust in the Lord, crying out to the Lord to not let him be put to shame, confiding in God those ways in which he has fallen short, confident that the Lord will guide him into good action, and trusting that the Lord will lead Him into good places — having expressed all this through a posture of heartfelt trust, David returns to the place where he began — a cry for help in time of trouble.

As I read these last six verses — I invite to join your heart to mine as we pray these verses:

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, 

for I am lonely and afflicted. 

17 Relieve the troubles of my heart 

and free me from my anguish. 

18 Look on my affliction and my distress 

and take away all my sins. 

19 See how numerous are my enemies 

and how fiercely they hate me! 

20 Guard my life and rescue me; 

do not let me be put to shame, 

for I take refuge in you. 

21 May integrity and uprightness protect me, 

because my hope, Lord, is in you. 

Amen.