How To Take Refuge In God - Psalm 25 Pt.1 Series

{This psalm is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.}

Of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. 3 No one who waits for you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. 4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and I wait for you all day long. 6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD. 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 for those who keep the demands of his covenant. 11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. 12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. 13 He will spend his days in prosperity, and his 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. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. 18 Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. 19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me! 20 Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. 20 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles!

Introduction: The circumstances when this meal is best

When you have one big, central trial in your life, you can usually marshal your defenses and fight against that one thing. You may even be able to do that if you have two or three big areas of suffering. But once you hit about four big crises going on simultaneously in your life, it starts to feel like your whole life is in the tank. It feels like everything is spinning out of control, and it can be so overwhelming that you are tempted to just give up. That is what it was like for David when he wrote Psalm 25. His whole life seemed to be unraveling. He had people who were opposing him.

2 Do not … let my enemies triumph over me

19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me!

He has anguish in his heart over multiplied troubles and anguish and affliction and distress (verses 17 and 18). He is also facing the possibility of embarrassment or humiliation before others for following God instead of the world.

2 Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

20 let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

So many things were going wrong he felt like he was stuck in a trap (verse 15).

15 My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.

Have you ever felt that way – trapped in some circumstance and there is just no escape?

And the worst part of all was the fact that he had sinned, and was racked with guilt. He refers to his sin so many times in this psalm that you get the feeling that a lot of his calamity is the result of his own sin.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD. 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

18 take away all my sins.

Our suffering is never more painful than when it is brought on by our own sin. Because when you are loaded down with guilt over your sin, Satan can usually convince you to lay down your natural defenses against his attacks because you feel you deserve to suffer. So he just wails away at you and you just let it happen.