Part 17: Help For Troubled Times Series

Great Prayers of the Old Testament

Part 17: Help for Troubled Times

Psalm 25:1-22 (Initial reading vs. 1-7)

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - July 2, 2017

(Revised January 15, 2025)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open you Bibles to Psalm 25, as we study another great Old Testament prayer. This is a psalm for troubled times, and it includes great prayers of confession from King David. Let's get started by reading vs. 1-7:

1. To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

2. O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.

3. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

4. Show me 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; On You I wait all the day.

6. Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old.

7. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness' sake, O LORD.

*David was an older man in these verses, and something had gone terribly wrong in his life. Charles Spurgeon and other Bible scholars theorize that it was the great rebellion of David's son Absalom, and that makes sense.

*In his younger years, Absalom was a great favorite of his father, and of the people as well. He was handsome, charming, popular, and persuasive. Terrible family trouble started when his half-brother, Amnon, raped Absalom's sister Tamar. Tragically, King David shut his eyes to this great crime, but two years later Absalom carried out a successful plan to avenge his sister, and Amnon was murdered.

*To avoid punishment Absalom fled into exile for 3 years, before being allowed to come back to Jerusalem. Two more years passed before he was allowed into the royal presence. By that time Absalom had determined to rebel against his father, and he was able to convince so many people to follow him that David had to flee Jerusalem for his life.

*The Lord gave David time to raise an army that fought a great battle in the forests of Ephraim. There the rebel army was utterly defeated. Twenty thousand were killed outright, and even more died in the forest that day. One of the men who died that day was Absalom. He was riding on his mule when his long hair was caught in the branches of a tree. And though David had ordered his son to be taken alive, Absalom was killed with three darts through his heart. David's heart was broken. (1)

*What a horrible chain of events. And David may have still been on the run from Jerusalem when he wrote this Psalm. We can see his anguish in vs. 15-19:

15. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16. Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.

17. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Oh, bring me out of my distresses!

18. Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.

19. Consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.

*Thankfully, most people never have to go through drama like that. But rebellious children can still break our hearts, and family trouble always brings heartache. All of us will go through times of trouble. How can we make it through?

1. FIRST: BY STRONG CONFIDENCE IN GOD.

*One of the great themes of this Psalm is confidence in the LORD, trusting Him even in the most treacherous situations. King David was viciously betrayed by his own son. And if you have ever been betrayed, please know that the Lord Jesus understands what that's like. I say that because Jesus was horribly betrayed by Judas Iscariot. And more than anything else, God's Word stresses this evil aspect of Judas. The New Testament specifically mentions Judas's traitorous ways at least 34 times. In 1 Corinthians 11 for example, Paul teaches us about the Lord's Supper. There Paul began by saying:

23. I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;

24. and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.''

*Jesus instituted this special supper on the night before He died on the cross. And of all the things Paul could have said, it is striking to me that the Holy Spirit led him to stress Jesus' betrayal by one of his own disciples. "On the same night in which Jesus was betrayed by Judas, He took bread.